Savoring the Book
by The Shrubbery
Summary: Katniss discovers a book that transfers her to a place where she has to read, with the audience of Peeta, Gale, Prim, Haymitch, Effie, and more. But what is this book? It's...The Hunger Games! Chapter 13 has been up!
1. Prologue

**Right now I only have a bit of The Hunger Games and I apologize! I'll try to get the rest as soon as possible!!!!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games nor any of its characters and ideas.**

**Claimer: The idea of this fanfiction _is_ mine so be so kind and ask before copying. **

**Thank you very much and I hope you'll enjoy!**

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* * *

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**Intro**

As Katniss is whistling in her little mansion, she watches Peeta talk to Prim about a book. Katniss herself is thinking of a book, a rather peculiar one on the shelf.

Haymitch and Gale are also here, it's a beautiful day and they are all gathered, a happy bunch.

But what happens next is strange, and perhaps you will not find it at all because, you have done it yourself.

* * *

Katniss: Hey, Peeta, come over here. I want to show you something.

(Katniss beckons Peeta over to a book that looks pretty old)

Peeta: What?

Gale: Don't leave me out here, Catnip!

(Gale comes over to take a peek at the book)

Prim: Katniss?

(Prim also come over to look at the cause of the hullabaloo)

Haymitch: What's going on? What's all the hubbub for?

(Now Haymitch, Prim, Gale, Peeta and Katniss are crowding around the book)

Katniss: It's a book.

Haymitch: Sweetheart, we obviously know it's a book, open it.

(Katniss obeys and opens the ancient book)

Katniss:

**You who opened the magical book**

**Have taken its words the vaguest of looks**

**I give you a warning not to do that no more**

**For a spell lies ahead, know that for sure**

**And now I give you the chant**

**"The Hunger Games**

**Are Here**

**In the Book Of Which**

**You Will**

**Read**

**θάνατος!"**

And all was history as Katniss, Prim, Gale, Haymitch, and Peeta got swept into a wind that was too loud to let someone scream for help, yet too quiet so no one would hear the whirring.

* * *

Sorry it was so short! The next part is good. Oh...I can't spill it!!!!!!!


	2. Chapter 1: Chapter 1?

Scene: Very dark room with dim lights on the ceiling. There is a light bulb on the ceiling.

(Everyone is fussing since its so dark)

Mysterious Voice: Shut up, everyone!

(Everyone freezes)

Gale: Who was that?

Mysterious Voice: I am the owner of that Spell Book and you can call me Rhea.

Peeta: This is kind of sudden.

Katniss: Um, duh?

Prim: Hi, Rhea, where are we?

Rhea: Nowhere.

Prim: Ok...Who or what are you?

Rhea: Nobody.

Prim: Ah...yes, and why are we here?

Rhea: To read.

Prim: Mmhmm. Ok, everyone, no data to start with. I don't know where we are, why we're here, or who she is.

Rhea: Precisely.

Haymitch: So we're supposed to read?

(Rhea acts as if she didn't hear him)

Gale: So we're supposed to read?

Rhea: Yup.

Katniss: From what book?

Rhea: Yours.

Peeta: Wait what?

Haymitch: Your short-answer answers are annoying, you know?

(Rhea, once again, acts as if she doesn't hear Haymitch)

Prim: Could you please answer with longer answers?

Rhea: Preferably, I don't like talking a lot so I usually don't give very long answers to anybody. But since you're a guest and will be doing me a favor I _guess_ I could give you longer answers with more meaning even though my motto is that "Less is More" so OK, sure.

(Everybody is silent)

Rhea: U-um, let's get to the point.

Haymitch: Yes, let's.

Rhea (ignores Haymitch): Ok, basically you guys are going to be reading a book, if you stop midway you will blow up and die. If you happen to contradict me right now I will blast you to smithereens and if you're going to run away I'll make sure I fry Haymitch.

Haymitch: Hey!

(Rhea's still ignoring Haymitch)

Rhea: Do you understand?

Gale: Sure.

Prim: OK...

Katniss: I don't have a choice here, do I?

Peeta: I'm stickin' with Katniss.

Haymitch: Whoa, whoa, hey, dudette, this is nice of you and all but we're going to have to decline and go.

Rhea: Did you not hear me of the blowing up part? (eyes are flaring)

Haymitch: On second thought, never mind....

Rhea: (smirks) Start.

* * *

Scene: The light bulb is turned on and reveals a large sofa of which Rue and Thresh are sitting on.

Rue: No time to ask questions, Katniss. Read the book.

(Rue hands katniss a book)

Katniss: Huh? Wait, Rue? What's going--

Thresh: Just read, Katniss.

Gale: AAAAUGGHH!!!!! Who's he??!!

(Haymitch bonks him on the head)

Haymitch: Think, Gale, think. The Hunger Games?

Gale: Oh yeah! That big dude!

(Thresh glares and clobbers Gale)

Peeta and Prim: Guys!

Katniss: Let me read.

Rue: Yes. Please.

Katniss: (sigh) **Chapter 1**...

* * *

**When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim's warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course, she did. This is the day of the reaping.**

Prim: Waah...You make me sound so weak...

Peeta: If you continue acting like that, _I'll_ call you weak.

Prim: Shut up.

**I prop myself up on one elbow. There's enough light in the bedroom to see them. My little sister, Prim, curled up on her side, cocooned in my mother's body, their cheeks pressed together. In sleep, my mother looks younger, still worn but not so beaten-down. Prim's face is as fresh as a raindrop, as lovely as the primrose for which she was named. My mother was very beautiful once, too. Or so they tell me.**

Prim: I'm telling Mum you said that!

Haymitch: This is from Katniss's POV right?

Katniss: Duh.

** Sitting at Prim's knees, guarding her, is the world's ugliest cat. Mashed-in nose, half of one ear missing, eyes the color of rotting squash. Prim named him Buttercup, insisting that his muddy yellow coat matched the bright flower.**

Prim: You don't agree with me?

Katniss: His fur was the color of pee!

Gale: Agreed.

Prim: I hate you two.

**He hates me. Or at least distrusts me. Even though it was years ago, I think he still remembers how I tried to drown him in a bucket when Prim brought him home. Scrawny kitten, belly swollen with worms, crawling with fleas. The last thing I needed was another mouth to feed. But Prim begged so hard, cried even, I had to let him stay. It turned out okay.**

Prim: See?

Katniss: Would you be quiet?! Every two sentences you pop up randomly protesting about something!

Rue: Calm down, Katniss.

Prim: WAAAAHH!!!!!!!

Gale: Um, Prim, please don't cry...

Haymitch: (whistles) Everybody needs to go to the mental hospital...

Peeta: (whistles back) Including you...O-o-oh...You...

Thresh: Shut up, everyone.

(Everyone freezes)

Everybody: Agreed.

** My mother got rid of the vermin and he's a born mouser. Even catches the occasional rat. Sometimes, when I clean a kill, I feed Buttercup the entrails.**

Rue and Prim: Ewww....

Gale: Katniss, Katniss...

Peeta: Tsk, tsk.

Haymitch: Honey-dumpling, sweetheart...

Thresh: ...

Katniss: WHAT?!

Rue: You kinda...

Prim: Sat on a...

Rue and Prim: Entrail...

Katniss (freaking out): OMG!!!! AAACCCKKK!!!!!!!!! Who the heck put it there??!! Was it you??!! (points at Haymitch then at Thresh) YOU??!!

Thresh: Not I.

Rhea: Sorry...I was gonna give that to Bree but I guess you sat on it.

Katniss (fuming): Rhea.............

Rhea: Um, I'll just disappear!

(Rhea disappears and it takes a bit of convincing in order to calm Katniss down and read)

** He has stopped hissing at me. Entrails. No hissing. This is the closest we will ever come to love. I swing my legs off the bed and slide into my hunting boots. Supple leather that has molded to my feet. I pull on trousers, a shirt, tuck my long dark braid up into a cap, and grab my forage bag. On the table, under a wooden bowl toprotect it from hungry rats and cats alike, sits a perfect little goat cheese wrapped in basil leaves. Prim's gift to me on reaping day. I put the cheese carefully in my pocket as I slip outside.**

Rue: Lucky you.

Katniss: What now?

Rue: You get pockets.

Peeta: And you don't?

Thresh: No...

Haymitch: They have pouches around their shoulders on weekends but that's it.

Gale: That's weird.

Rue: It's our dress code.

** Our part of District 12, nicknamed the Seam, is usually crawling with coal miners heading out to the morning shift at this hour. Men and women with hunched shoulders, swollen knuckles, many who have long since stopped trying to scrub the coal dust out of their broken nails, the lines of their sunken faces.**

Rue: Poor people...

Thresh: Agreed.

Haymitch: I usually sleep in, can't see those people.

Peeta (fake coughing that sounds like a hack and a very noticeable...): You mean _always_.

** But today the black cinder streets are empty. Shutters on the squat gray houses are closed. The reaping isn't until two. May as well sleep in. If you can. Our house is almost at the edge of the Seam. I only have to pass a few gates to reach the scruffy field called the Meadow. Separating the Meadow from the woods, in fact enclosing all of District 12, is a high chain-link fence topped with barbed-wire loops. In theory, it's supposed to be electrified twenty-four hours a day as a deterrent to the predators that live in the woods — packs of wild dogs, lone cougars, bears — that used to threaten our streets. But since we're lucky to get two or three hours of electricity in the evenings, it's usually safe to touch.**

Katniss: Actually, I need to make a revision...It's _always_ safe to touch.

Peeta: Just stick with usually.

** Even so, I always take a moment to listen carefully for the hum that means the fence is live. Right now, it's silent as a stone. Concealed by a  
clump of bushes, I flatten out on my belly and slide under a two-foot stretch that's been loose for years. There are several other weak spots in the fence, but this one is so close to home I almost always enter the woods here. As soon as I'm in the trees, I retrieve a bow and sheath of arrows from a hollow log. Electrified or not, the fence has been successful at keeping the flesh-eaters out of District 12.**

Haymitch: Oh, there was a rumor long ago that there was a _cannibal_ loose in District 12.

Rue and Prim: Eek!!

Thresh: What did they...do with him?

Haymitch: Killed him of course! But after that they put up the fence, he had a wife and a kid.

Peeta: Wouldn't he have eaten them?

Haymitch: Well...I guess...

Katniss: Would you guys let me read!?

** Inside the woods they roam freely, and there are added concerns like venomous snakes, rabid animals, and no real paths to follow. But there's also food if you know how to find it. My father knew and he taught me some before he was blown to bits in a mine explosion. There was nothing even to bury. I was eleven then. Five years later, I still wake up screaming for him to run. Even though trespassing in the woods is illegal and poaching carries the severest of penalties, more people would risk it if they had weapons. **

Peeta: But I know a bazillion of people who have weapons and don't dare go where you do!

Katniss: (sarcastic) Sorry...I was wrong...I was being stereo-type...

**But most are not bold enough to venture out with just a knife.**

Katniss: See? I had a point to what I was saying!

Peeta: (sarcastic) Sorry...I was wrong...I was being indolent...

** My bow is a rarity, crafted by my father along with a few others that I keep well hidden in the woods, carefully wrapped in waterproof covers. My father could have made good money selling them, but if the officials found out he would have been publicly executed for inciting a rebellion. Most of the Peacekeepers turn a blind eye to the few of us who hunt because they're as hungry for fresh meat as anybody is. In fact, they're among our best customers. But the idea that someone might be arming the Seam would never have been allowed. In the fall, a few brave souls sneak into the woods to harvest apples.**

Gale: I never knew there were _apples_!

Katniss: Now you do, Gale, now shut up.

** But always in sight of the Meadow. Always close enough to run back to the safety of District 12 if trouble arises. "District Twelve. Where you can starve to death in safety," I mutter.**

Rue: You can starve to death safely _anywhere_, Katniss.

Katniss: District 12 specializes.

Rue: True.

** Then I glance quickly over my shoulder. Even here, even in the middle of nowhere, you worry someone might overhear you. When I was younger, I scared my mother to death, the things I would blurt out about District 12, about the people who rule our country, Panem, from the far-off city called the Capitol.**

Gale: Like what?

Katniss: Erm...

(Katniss scoots over where Gale is and whispers a few things into his ear)

Gale: GASP!

(Gale faints)

Peeta: What, what, what is it???!!!!

Haymitch: Yeah, yeah!

(Katniss whispers to Peeta)

Peeta: CHOKE!

(Peeta chokes and falls down)

Rue: What is it?

Haymitch: And me, and me!!

(Katniss tells Rue)

Rue: FAINT!

(Rue faints)

Thresh: Tell me too...

Haymitch: Waiting...

(Katniss tells Thresh)

Thresh: DIE!

(Thresh faints)

Haymitch: What about me?

Katniss: Who cares about you?

Haymitch: Humph.

** Eventually I understood this would only lead us to more trouble. So I learned to hold my tongue and to turn my features into an indifferent mask so that no one could ever read my thoughts. Do my work quietly in school. Make only polite small talk in the public market. Discuss little more than trades in the Hob, which is the black market where I make most of my money. Even at home, where I am less pleasant, I avoid discussing tricky topics. Like the reaping, or food shortages, or the Hunger Games. Prim might begin to repeat my words and then where would we be?**

Prim: Dead, surely.

** In the woods waits the only person with whom I can be myself. Gale. I can feel the muscles in my face relaxing, my pace quickening as I climb the hills to our place, a rock ledge overlooking a valley. A thicket of berry bushes protects it from unwanted eyes. The sight of him waiting there brings on a smile. Gale says I never smile except in the woods.**

Gale: Ya don't.

** "Hey, Catnip," says Gale. My real name is Katniss, but when I first told him, I had barely whispered it. So he thought I'd said Catnip. Then when this crazy lynx started following me around the woods looking for handouts, it became his official nickname for me. I finally had to kill the lynx because he scared off game. I almost regretted it because he wasn't bad company. But I got a decent price for his pelt.**

Prim: (crying) Why did you do that? I mean--sniff--like you said, he wasn't--sniff--bad com--sniff--pany...

Gale: You would have starved if she hadn't killed the lynx.

Prim: (sobbing) SO?!

Katniss: So? _So?_ Are you kidding me? It's not that easy to hunt for you and Mom!

Peeta: Um, guys, calm down...

** "Look what I shot," Gale holds up a loaf of bread with an arrow stuck in it, and I laugh. It's real bakery bread, not the flat, dense loaves we make from our grain rations. I take it in my hands, pull out the arrow, and hold the puncture in the crust to my nose, inhaling the fragrance that makes my mouth flood with saliva. Fine bread like this is for special occasions. "Mm, still warm," I say. He must have been at the bakery at the crack of dawn to trade for it. "What did it cost you?" **

**"Just a squirrel. Think the old man was feeling sentimental this morning," says Gale. "Even wished me luck."**

** "Well, we all feel a little closer today, don't we?" I say, not even bothering to roll my eyes. "Prim left us a cheese." I pull it out. His expression brightens at the treat. **

**"Thank you, Prim. We'll have a real feast."**

Prim: You're welcome, Gale.

Katniss: You know that you're basically talking to the book?

Prim: Oh, so you're lying and he didn't say that?

Katniss: No, it means I want you to shut up.

Prim: Oh. Ok.

** Suddenly he falls into a Capitol accent as he mimics Effie Trinket, the maniacally upbeat woman who arrives once a year to read out the names at the reaping. "I almost forgot! Happy Hunger Games!" He plucks a few blackberries from the bushes around us. "And may the odds —" He tosses a berry in a high arc toward me. I catch it in my mouth and break the delicate skin with my teeth. The sweet tartness explodes across my tongue.**

** "— be ever in your favor!" I finish with equal verve. We have to joke about it because the alternative is to be scared out of your wits. Besides, the Capitol accent is so affected, almost anything sounds funny in it.**

Peeta: Hmm...I wish Effie Trinket were here...We could ask--What the heck?!

(Effie Trinket has suddenly appeared)

Effie: --And that's why we should allow trout to have skirts in their personal aquariums, Presi--Where am I?

Katniss: Uh, somewhere?

Effie: OOH! Are you telling a story, I just _love_ stories!!

Rue (whispers): You're right, Katniss, _everything_ sounds funny in that ridiculous accent.

** I watch as Gale pulls out his knife and slices the bread. He could be my brother. Straight black hair, olive skin, we even have the same gray eyes. But we're not related, at least not closely.**

Gale: Not closely means that we're still somehow related. I guess my father could be your dad's 4th cousin 5 times removed.

Katniss: I guess....

Prim: But I don't want to be related to him!

Katniss: ANYWAY...

** Most of the families who work the mines resemble one another this way. That's why my mother and Prim, with their light hair and blue eyes, always look out of place. They are. My mother's parents were part of the small merchant class that caters to officials, Peacekeepers, and the occasional Seam customer. They ran an apothecary shop in the nicer part of District 12. Since almost no one can afford doctors, apothecaries are our healers. My father got to know my mother because on his hunts he would sometimes collect medicinal herbs and sell them to her shop to be brewed into remedies. She must have really loved him to leave her home for the Seam.**

Effie: She probably did, my dear!

Prim: I heard that the real story is that Grandma didn't like Mom in love with Dad in the house so she chased them out into the Seam.

Gale: I heard that the real story is that your mom got pregnant when she was still living there and her mom died so she was so sad and ran away with your dad.

Peeta: I heard that the real story is that your mom heard that my dad was here and she wanted to see him so she went with your dad.

Haymitch: I heard that she was a good apothecary.

Katniss: Calling you guys idiots are going to make the stupid people unhappy to have such lowly scum on their level.

** I try to remember that when all I can see is the woman who sat by, blank and unreachable, while her children turned to skin and bones. I try to forgive her for my father's sake. But to be honest, I'm not the forgiving type. **

**Gale spreads the bread slices with the soft goat cheese, carefully placing a basil leaf on each while I strip the bushes of their berries. We settle back in a nook in the rocks. From this place, we are invisible but have a clear view of the valley, which is teeming with summer life, greens to gather, roots to dig, fish iridescent in the sunlight. The day is glorious, with a blue sky and soft breeze. The food's wonderful, with the cheese seeping into the warm bread and the berries bursting in our mouths. Everything would be perfect if this really was a holiday, if all the day off meant was roaming the mountains with Gale, hunting for tonight's supper. But instead we have to be standing in the square at two o'clock waiting for the names to be called out.**

Prim: Do we have any holidays?

Peeta: Well, there's, uh...Um...There's gotta be _some_ holiday...

Effie: Well, there's the Capital Upchuck Day...And Capital Roasted-Pig-With-Brown-Sugar-And-Butter Day...And...

Katniss: Weekends are holidays. Now back to the story.

** "We could do it, you know," Gale says quietly. **

**"What?" I ask. **

**"Leave the district. Run off. Live in the woods. You and I, we could make it," says Gale. I don't know how to respond.**

(Katniss kisses Gale **[A/N: Sorry for all those Peeta X Katniss fans]**)

Peeta: What was that for?!

Katniss: First of all, it should be _Gale_ saying that, second of all, you've done that _plenty_ of times with me--

Peeta: Because I really love you.

Katniss: --And third, because I should've done _exactly_ what he said.

Gale (dazed): Katniss...Just...Just..._KISSED_...Me...

(Katniss kisses Gale again)

Gale: Er, why'd you kiss me?

Katniss: That's my response.

Prim: Ew...Katniss!

** The idea is so preposterous. "If we didn't have so many kids," he adds quickly. **

**They're not our kids, of course. But they might as well be. Gale's two little brothers and a sister. Prim. And you may as well throw in our mothers, too, because how would they live without us? Who would fill those mouths that are always asking for more? With both of us hunting daily, there are still nights when game has to be swapped for lard or shoelaces or wool, still nights when we go to bed with our stomachs growling. **

**"I never want to have kids," I say. **

**"I might. If I didn't live here," says Gale. **

**"But you do," I say, irritated. **

**"Forget it," he snaps back. The conversation feels all wrong. Leave? How could I leave Prim, who is the only person in the world I'm certain I love? **

Prim: You _love_ me?!

**And Gale is devoted to his family. We can't leave, so why bother talking about it? And even if we did . . . even if we did . . . where did this stuff about having kids come from? There's never been anything romantic between Gale and me. When we met, I was a skinny twelve-year-old, and although he was only two years older, he already looked like a man. It took a long time for us to even become friends, to stop haggling over every trade and begin helping each other out.**

Gale: That's because you were playing hard to get!

Katniss and Peeta: WHAT?!

Gale: Uh, oops?

** Besides, if he wants kids, Gale won't have any trouble finding a wife. He's good-looking, he's strong enough to handle the work in the mines, and he can hunt. You can tell by the way the girls whisper about him when he walks by in school that they want him. It makes me jealous but not for the reason people would think.**

Effie: What's the reason, dear?

Katniss: I'm not telling _you_.

Peeta: What is it, Katniss?

Katniss: Well, er, I forget the reason then but now I guess he's really close to me. He's like a true brother and I'm protective of him.

Haymitch: RIGHT...

** Good hunting partners are hard to find. "What do you want to do?" I ask. We can hunt, fish, or gather. **

**"Let's fish at the lake. We can leave our poles and gather in the woods. Get something nice for tonight," he says. Tonight. After the reaping, everyone is supposed to celebrate. And a lot of people do, out of relief that their children have been spared for another year. But at least two families will pull their shutters, lock their doors, and try to figure out how they will survive the painful weeks to come. We make out well. The predators ignore us on a day when easier, tastier prey abounds. By late morning, we have a dozen fish, a bag of greens and, best of all, a gallon of strawberries.**

Madge: Oh I love strawberries!!

Peeta: ACK! Who're you??!!

Katniss: MADGE?!

Madge: I kinda fell and ended up here. Hi, guys!

Everybody: ...

Madge: Continue reading, it's not like I don't know what's going on.

Katniss: Er...OK...

** I found the patch a few years ago, but Gale had the idea to string mesh nets around it to keep out the animals. On the way home, we swing by the Hob, the black market that operates in an abandoned warehouse that once held coal. When they came up with a more efficient system that transported the coal directly from the mines to the trains, the Hob gradually took over the space. Most businesses are closed by this time on reaping day, but the black market's still fairly busy. We easily trade six of the fish for good bread, the other two for salt. Greasy Sae, the bony old woman who sells bowls of hot soup from a large kettle, takes half the greens off our hands in exchange for a couple of chunks of paraffin. We might do a tad better elsewhere, but we make an effort to keep on good terms with Greasy Sae. She's the only one who can consistently be counted on to buy wild dog. We don't hunt them on purpose, but if you're attacked and you take out a dog or two, well, meat is meat. "Once it's in the soup, I'll call it beef," Greasy Sae says with a wink. No one in the Seam would turn up their nose at a good leg of wild dog,**

(Prim is crying)

Katniss: Oh, would you shut up?! First the cat, then the lynx, now the dogs, what's wr--HAYMITCH!!!

(Haymitch is poking her and lifting her skirt up so that Thresh can see her panties)

Thresh: He's the one. (points at Haymitch)

Katniss: Haymitch, if you don't want to be ground into a fine powder, I suggest you _**stop**_!

(Haymitch stops)

** but the Peacekeepers who come to the Hob can afford to be a little choosier. When we finish our business at the market, we go to the back door of the mayor's house to sell half the strawberries, knowing he has a particular fondness for them and can afford our price. The mayor's daughter, Madge, opens the door. She's in my year at school. Being the mayor's daughter, you'd expect her to be a snob, but she's all right.**

Madge: Some people think I'm a snob though.

Katniss: Jane's just a snob herself, being the daughter of Nana Hannah and Baba Aiden.

Madge: True.

** She just keeps to herself. Like me. Since neither of us really has a group of friends, we seem to end up together a lot at school. Eating lunch, sitting next to each other at assemblies, partnering for sports activities. We rarely talk, which suits us both just fine. Today her drab school outfit has been replaced by an expensive white dress, and her blonde hair is done up with a pink ribbon. Reaping clothes. **

**"Pretty dress," says Gale. Madge shoots him a look, trying to see if it's a genuine compliment or if he's just being ironic.**

Gale: Kind of both...I mean it was a pretty dress and you _did_ look cute.

(Madge blushes and Katniss looks at him weirdly)

Effie: How exciting! A love square! Peeta loves Katniss who likes both Gale and Peeta and is friends with Madge who likes Gale who kind of likes Katniss!

Haymitch and Prim: I don't like soap operas.

Rue: So please continue reading, Katniss...

** It is a pretty dress, but she would never be wearing it ordinarily. She presses her lips together and then smiles. **

**"Well, if I end up going to the Capitol, I want to look nice, don't I?" Now it's Gale's turn to be confused. Does she mean it? Or is she messing with him? I'm guessing the second.**

Madge: Yeah, I was.

** "You won't be going to the Capitol," says Gale coolly. His eyes land on a small, circular pin that adorns her dress. Real gold. Beautifully crafted. It could keep a family in bread for months. "What can you have? Five entries? I had six when I was just twelve years old." **

**"That's not her fault," I say. **

**"No, it's no one's fault. Just the way it is," says Gale. Madge's face has become closed off. She puts the money for the berries in my hand. **

**"Good luck, Katniss." **

**"You, too," I say, and the door closes.**

Madge: That really hurt my feelings, you know?

Gale: What'dya want me to do? Kiss ya?

(Madge blushes then nods)

Gale: Forgive me, Katniss...

(Gale kisses Madge slightly to the right of her lips)

Gale: There.

Effie: You are a traitor!

Gale: Shut up.

**_And now it is time for..._**

**AN INTERMISSION!!**

**(YAY!!!!)**

**

* * *

**

OK, intermissions are breaks of which I, the author, will speak a little so I won't have to wait for the next long chapter in order to. There will also be an interview at the end. Once everybody has been interviewed, I, er, will think of something.

NOTICE #1: I finally have The Hunger Games!!! That means it'll be easier for me to post and all.

NOTICE #2: I finally finished Catching Fire!!! Great book, absolutely _terrible_ ending. Like, _what the blubber fish??!!_ I thought. Frustrating. Now, I originally wanted only for Hunger Games charries only but apparently I really want _those tributes_ (*wink, wink* to all Catching Fire readers!) so, I'm considering. But since I don't want any spoilers...I'll have to think about it. Send me your response to this in your comment!!! Or, you can go to my profile and do the poll.

NOTICE #3: I'm kind of wanting Effie out. SHE'S TAKING UP TOO MUCH SPACE IN THE SUMMARY!!!!!! JK, but if I have too many people it ends up a bit hard to fit everybody's comment. I also want Rue to have this special moment with Prim and Katniss and have someone interrupt. If you want someone replacing Effie, tell me!!

NOTICE #4: I think that Madge should have some weird crush on Gale. Dunno why, just a twist. Maybe it'll grow...?

NOTICE #5: Ya think that the other people should have a chance to read the book too? Just a thought I kinda wanted to put out into the world.

NOTICE #6: Chapter 2 will have something really, really, really, really weird so be prepared.

NOTICE #7: I think I put up too many "NOTICES".

Rhea: Hello, Icey-Berry.

Me, Icey-Berry: Hello, Rhea. How's it going?

Rhea: They're reading the book.

Me: Obviously.

Rhea: Just thought you might want to know.

Me: But I already knew.

Rhea: How?

Me (mystical): I can predict the future....Oooh....

Rhea: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Rhea runs out)

Me: A fine interview that was, wasn't it?

**Intermission Done**

**

* * *

**

Scene: A lush green forest with a blue monkey somewhere in it...

Katniss: Sorry, I sort of fell asleep there.

Rue: Yeah, me t--WHAT THE HECK?

Peeta: "WHAT THE HECK?" indeed, Rue! Where are we??!!

Effie: Oh, such a, a, _revolting_ green! The green should be more orange-ish and it should be deeper and darker. Then, I could use one of the leaves for a lovely robe.

Gale (relieved of being able to escape Effie in another ridiculous outfit): Thank God, it's not the right color, eh, Effie?

Effie: Oh, well, if you put it that way, I _guess_ it's OK.

Gale and Haymitch (groan): Uugghh..............

(Gale, Haymitch, Peeta, Katniss, Madge, and Thresh turn away as Effie strips herself and, er, puts on a very big green leaf)

Rhea: That...was...really...really...unnecessary...to...be...in...my...memory...bank...

Prim: MY EYES!!!! MY EYES!!!! SHIELD MY EYES!!!!

Rue: I WILL NEVER LOOK AT LIFE THE SAME WAY AGAIN!!!!!!

Prim and Rue and Rhea: NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

(The three run around screaming)

Effie: I _know_!! Isn't it _gorgeous_?!

Madge: It sounds more like they saw the devil, ma'am.

Effie: I know! I look pretty sly and evil, right?

(Effie gives a look that makes everybody gag)

Thresh: Excuse me. I need some time to upchuck the remaining pieces of my soul.

Rue: SO DO I, THRESH!!! I NEED TO...TO...GET AWAY FROM HERE!!!!!!!!!

Prim: AND ME TOO!!!!! HELP!!!!!!!!

Peeta: EVERYBODY CALM DOWN AND LET'S READ THE BOOK!

(Everybody calms down immediately and sits down on the couch to hear the book)

Katniss: Why don't you read, Peeta?

Peeta: For now, you read.

Katniss: Okay...

* * *

**We walk toward the Seam in silence. I don't like that Gale took a dig at Madge,**

Gale: I don't like girls with one of the 7 Deadly Sins.

Peeta: She doesn't have any of them!!

Haymitch: Adultery, envy, gluttony, sloth, wrath, greed, and pride.

Gale: She's got envy for Madge because of me.

Haymitch: Adultery _because_ of that envy. She's supposed to love Peeta too...

Gale: Gluttony because she's so poor.

Haymitch: Wrath is definitely one of them, such a short temper!

Gale: Greedy for more, "for Prim and my mother"...or so she says.

Haymitch: And pride, too much of it!

Peeta: What about sloth?

Rue: Their point is that she has many of the 7 deadly sins, Peeta.

Katniss (ticked off): You _KNOW_ I can hear you...Right?....

(Katniss goes on a tantrum and beats Gale and Haymitch up and does a french kiss with Peeta of which he accepts warmly)

Katniss: Take that! Yeah, I got the 7 deadly sins! So what?! I saved you guys' _butts_ in those Hunger Games. I'm going to murder you.......

** but he's right, of course. The reaping system is unfair, with the poor getting the worst of it. You become eligible for the reaping the day you turn twelve. That year, your name is entered once. At thirteen, twice. And so on and so on until you reach the age of eighteen, the final year of eligibility, when your name goes into the pool seven times. That's true for every citizen in all twelve districts in the entire country of Panem. But here's the catch. Say you are poor and starving as we were. You can opt to add your name more times in exchange for tesserae. Each tessera is worth a meager year's supply of grain and oil for one person. You may do this for each of your family members as well. So, at the age of twelve, I had my name entered four times. Once, because I had to, and three times for tesserae for grain and oil for myself, Prim, and my mother. In fact, every year I have needed to do this. And the entries are cumulative. So now, at the age of sixteen, my name will be in the reaping twenty times. Gale, who is eighteen and has been either helping or single-handedly feeding a family of five for seven years, will have his name in forty-two times. You can see why someone like Madge, who has never been at risk of needing a tessera, can set him off. The chance of her name being drawn is very slim compared to those of us who live in the Seam. Not impossible, but slim.**

Madge: Pop, actually entered some tesserae for me. He said he would've given them to you, Katniss.

Katniss: Aw, thanks!

Gale: And me?

Madge: I don't like a guy who insults a girl who's his best friend and crush.

Gale (mutters): _Touchy..._

(Madge and Katniss get this mad glint in their eyes)

Madge and Katniss: WHAT DID YOU SAY...??!!

Gale (scared out of his wits): Er...um...I...uh....Sorry?...

(Madge and Katniss beat the crap out of him....again)

Katniss and Madge: Hmph!

** And even though the rules were set up by the Capitol, not the districts, certainly not Madge's family, it's hard not to resent those who don't have to sign up for tesserae.**

Rue: Once, in District 11, someone killed Mayor Jay-Jay's family because he persuaded the Capital that his daughter didn't need to enter in the Games. He was friends with most of the Gamemakers and knew everybody in Panem so they allowed that. His head was cut off and his daughter was sliced to pieces. His wife was suffocated inside a box and his parents and his wife's parents were strangled.

Thresh: I was around 13 or 14.

Rue: I was something like 7 or 8.

Effie: Aww...You poor itty-bitty-witty little eeny-weeny itsy-bitsy little girl...

(Effie pinches both of Rue's cheeks)

Rue: ACK! Geroff of ne!

(Rue pushes Effie away)

Rue: Hmph!

**Gale knows his anger at Madge is misdirected. On other days, deep in the woods, I've listened to him rant about how the tesserae are just another tool to cause misery in our district. A way to plant hatred between the starving workers of the Seam and those who can generally count on supper and thereby ensure we will never trust one another. **

**"It's to the Capitol's advantage to have us divided among ourselves," he might say if there were no ears to hear but mine. If it wasn't reaping day. If a girl with a gold pin and no tesserae had not made what I'm sure she thought was a harmless comment. As we walk, I glance over at Gale's face, still smoldering underneath his stony expression. His rages seem pointless to me, although I never say so.**

Gale: THEY ARE NOT POINTLESS! THEY MAKE PERFECT SENSE AND THEY OUGHTA SHOW IT TO THE WHOLE WORLD, KATNISS! YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND MY FEELINGS AND ALL THAT TESSERAE I HAVE TO SIGN UP FOR AND HOW HARD I HAVE TO WORK AND, AND, AND.........

Haymitch: Dude, calm down. Here, take a swig.

(Haymitch hands Gale a bottle of white wine. Very strong stuff)

Gale: Thanks.

(Gale drinks from the bottle and gulps down more than half of it)

Haymitch: Hey! Hmph!

Gale (slurs): I wanna buy Katniss a pony and she--hiccup--can milk it and then--hiccup--I can dump it on--hiccup--Rue and Prim--hiccup--and they'll squeal--hiccup--like little piggies and--hiccup--Haymitch'll laugh and I--hiccup--will be sleeping--hiccup--Yup.

Peeta: Katniss?

Katniss: Thresh, knock him unconscious, will you? He'll go on like that for hours if he's not knocked out.

(Thresh grunts and whaps Gale silly so he faints)

Effie: Thank you. I don't want another Haymitch in here.

** It's not that I don't agree with him. I do. But what good is yelling about the Capitol in the middle of the woods? It doesn't change anything. It doesn't make things fair. It doesn't fill our stomachs. In fact, it scares off the nearby game. I let him yell though. Better he does it in the woods than in the district. Gale and I divide our spoils, leaving two fish, a couple of loaves of good bread, greens, a quart of strawberries, salt, paraffin, and a bit of money for each. **

**"See you in the square," I say. **

**"Wear something pretty," he says flatly. **

Katniss: I did, what did you think?

Gale: It was pretty.

Peeta: No it wasn't! It was much more! It was beautiful, elegant, exquisite, it was perfect!

Prim: It was also her mother's.

Gale: No wonder, your mother could sell her dresses for millions of dollars!

Katniss: Thanks.

**At home, I find my mother and sister are ready to go. My mother wears a fine dress from her apothecary days. Prim is in my first reaping outfit, a skirt and ruffled blouse. It's a bit big on her, but my mother has made it stay with pins. Even so, she's having trouble keeping the blouse tucked in at the back. A tub of warm water waits for me. I scrub off the dirt and sweat from the woods and even wash my hair. To my surprise, my mother has laid out one of her own lovely dresses for me. A soft blue thing with matching shoes. **

**"Are you sure?" I ask. I'm trying to get past rejecting offers of help from her. For a while, I was so angry, I wouldn't allow her to do anything for me. And this is something special. Her clothes from her past are very precious to her. **

**"Of course. Let's put your hair up, too," she says. I let her towel-dry it and braid it up on my head. I can hardly recognize myself in the cracked mirror that leans against the wall. **

**"You look beautiful," says Prim in a hushed voice. **

**"And nothing like myself," I say. I hug her, because I know these next few hours will be terrible for her. Her first reaping. She's about as safe as you can get, since she's only entered once. I wouldn't let her take out any tesserae. But she's worried about me. That the unthinkable might happen. I protect Prim in every way I can, but I'm powerless against the reaping. The anguish I always feel when she's in pain wells up in my chest and threatens to register on my face. I notice her blouse has pulled out of her skirt in the back again and force myself to stay calm. **

**"Tuck your tail in, little duck," I say, smoothing the blouse back in place. Prim giggles and gives me a small "Quack." "Quack yourself," I say with a light laugh. The kind only Prim can draw out of me. "Come on, let's eat," I say and plant a quick kiss on the top of her head. **

**The fish and greens are already cooking in a stew, but that will be for supper. We decide to save the strawberries and bakery bread for this evening's meal, to make it special we say. Instead we drink milk from Prim's goat, Lady, and eat the rough bread made from the tessera grain, although no one has much appetite anyway. At one o'clock, we head for the square. Attendance is mandatory unless you are on death's door. This evening, officials will come around and check to see if this is the case. If not, you'll be imprisoned.**

Rue: Once, there was a family who had a trapdoor under their kitchen and they would hide there. It worked for a few years but eventually, the Officials just chained them up later.

Katniss: I really don't like your stories Rue so just shut up. Please.

Prim: All in favor of this say "aye".

Katniss, Prim, Thresh, Effie, Haymitch, Peeta, Gale, and Madge: Aye.

Prim: Proposition passed. You may proceed.

** It's too bad, really, that they hold the reaping in the square — one of the few places in District 12 that can be pleasant. **

**The square's surrounded by shops, and on public market days, especially if there's good weather, it has a holiday feel to it. But today, despite the bright banners hanging on the buildings, there's an air of grimness. The camera crews, perched like buzzards on rooftops, only add to the effect. People file in silently and sign in. The reaping is a good opportunity for the Capitol to keep tabs on the population as well. Twelve- through eighteen-year-olds are herded into roped areas marked off by ages, the oldest in the front, the young ones, like Prim, toward the back. Family members line up around the perimeter, holding tightly to one another's hands. But there are others, too, who have no one they love at stake, or who no longer care, who slip among the crowd, taking bets on the two kids whose names will be drawn. Odds are given on their ages, whether they're Seam or merchant, if they will break down and weep.**

Rue: My father was one of them and when they chose me--

(Gale claps his hand over Rue's mouth)

Gale: When we say "Shut up", we usually mean "Shut up". OK?

** Most refuse dealing with the racketeers but carefully, carefully. These same people tend to be informers, and who hasn't broken the law? I could be shot on a daily basis for hunting, but the appetites of those in charge protect me. Not everyone can claim the same. Anyway, Gale and I agree that if we have to choose between dying of hunger and a bullet in the head, the bullet would be much quicker.**

Effie: So does that mean you would like to be shot in the head by a rifle?

(Effie pulls out this really random rifle)

Gale and Katniss: AAHH!!!! HELP!!!!

(Gale and Katniss jump over the couch and duck behind it)

Effie: Just kidding. Here, I'll cheer you up.

(Effie puts away the rifle [where, I'm not sure] and starts doing the chicken dance)

Gale: Oh Lord, help me and let her shoot me.

(Effie finishes the dance)

Katniss: That was...rather disturbing...

** The space gets tighter, more claustrophobic as people arrive.**

Prim: You're claustrophobic?!

(Katniss slaps her forehead)

Katniss: I'm your sister and probably the closest thing you ever had to a friend and you're asking me _if I'm claustrophobic?!_

Prim: Is that a yes?

(Katniss sighs)

Katniss: Yes, Prim, yes it does.

** The square's quite large, but not enough to hold District 12's population of about eight thousand. Latecomers are directed to the adjacent streets, where they can watch the event on screens as it's televised live by the state. I find myself standing in a clump of sixteens from the Seam. We all exchange terse nods then focus our attention on the temporary stage that is set up before the Justice Building. It holds three chairs, a podium, and two large glass balls, one for the boys and one for the girls. I stare at the paper slips in the girls' ball. Twenty of them have Katniss Everdeen written on them in careful handwriting. Two of the three chairs fill with Madge's father, Mayor Undersee, who's a tall, balding man, and Effie Trinket, District 12's escort, fresh from the Capitol with her scary white grin, pinkish hair, and spring green suit.**

Haymitch (chuckling): Why that's rude! Calling Effie, that big scary creature over there--(points as Effie)--creepy with her "scary white grin" and "pinkish hair" and "spring green suit". HARHAR!

(Haymitch guffaws loudly while Effie becomes very angry)

Effie: That is a _perfect_ description myself. What more does it require?

Haymitch: Well, it oughta say you'll be willing to pay your green leaf for a mind, HARHAR!

(Haymitch continues guffawing while Effie looks on very cross)

Effie: I have a brain even though it _is_ the size of a peanut.

Thresh: Yes, what more is new?

(Everybody cracks up at this and Effie just sighs impatiently)

Effie: Just continue reading, Katniss dear.

** They murmur to each other and then look with concern at the empty seat. Just as the town clock strikes two, the mayor steps up to the podium and begins to read. It's the same story every year.**

Effie (squeals): Oh, but it's a _good_ story, isn't it?

Peeta: I'm going to suffocate if I stay in a room with her another minute.

Effie: Aw...You hurt Auntie Effie's feelings...

Peeta: Get me a barf bag, I don't want any casualties.

** He tells of the history of Panem, the country that rose up out of the ashes of a place that was once called North America. He lists the disasters, the droughts, the storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed up so much of the land, the brutal war for what little sustenance remained. The result was Panem, a shining Capitol ringed by thirteen districts, which brought peace and prosperity to its citizens. Then came the Dark Days, the uprising of the districts against the Capitol. Twelve were defeated, the thirteenth obliterated. The Treat of Treason gave us the new laws to guarantee peace and, as our yearly reminder that the Dark Days must never be repeated, it gave us the Hunger Games. The rules of the Hunger Games are simple. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes, to participate. The twenty four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland.**

Rue: OH! My mother told me that once, there was only this little strip of land and it was surrounded by freshwater.

Katniss: I'd love to be there if I were a Tribute!

Rue: Except apparently the water was poisoned and if you drank too much, you would barf and have headaches. And, there were piranha muttations and there was this big sea dragon thing and eat feasted on human flesh. One of the Tribute befriended it but then the poor thing (the sea dragon) had to eat her because the Capitol had put a chip in his brain and his head would hurt every time he didn't listen to them.

Thresh: Yeah, and then--

Haymitch (fakingly sweet): Sweetie Pie Rue, if you continue with that, I'm going to have to strangle you. (smiles really big)

Prim (whispers): Once he throttled me after I didn't listen, Rue, be careful!

Gale: Haymitch, that's going a bit too far...

Haymitch (flailing): WHAT ARE YOU TO TALK BACK, HUH?! SHE'S BUGGING US OUT AND I'M GOING TO PUT AN END TO IT!!

Katniss: Rue, he's just drunk, killing and torturing you is my job so don't worry.

Rue: Is that supposed to make me feel better?

** Over a period of several weeks, the competitors must fight to the death. The last tribute standing wins. Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch — this is the Capitol's way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion. Whatever words they use, the real message is clear. "Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there's nothing you can do. If you lift a finger, we will destroy every last one of you. Just as we did in District Thirteen." To make it humiliating as well as torturous, the Capitol requires us to treat the Hunger Games as a festivity, a sporting event pitting every district against the others. The last tribute alive receives a life of ease back home, and their district will be showered with prizes, largely consisting of food. All year, the Capitol will show the winning district gifts of grain and oil and even delicacies like sugar while the rest of us battle starvation.**

Effie: You make it sound so, so _epic_!

Peeta: You don't even know what that means.

Effie: Yeah I do.

Peeta: No you don't.

Effie: Uh-huh.

Peeta: Nuh-uh.

Effie: Yuh-huh!

Peeta: Nuh-uh!

Katniss: Would you guys shut up?!

Effie (mutters): Peeta's so, so, _volumptuos_.

Peeta: First of all, that's not a word, second of all, I'm not offended, and third of all--

Katniss: Third of all you guys will be killed in your sleep if you continue talking.

** "It is both a time for repentance and a time for thanks," intones the mayor. Then he reads the list of past District 12 victors. In seventy four years, we have had exactly two. Only one is still alive. Haymitch Abernathy, a paunchy, middle-aged man, who at this moment appears hollering something unintelligible, staggers onto the stage, and falls into the third chair. He's drunk. Very. The crowd responds with its token applause, but he's confused and tries to give Effie Trinket a big hug,**

Haymitch: I _did_ that?

Gale: Yes, yes you did.

(Haymitch looks at Effie, scared, and edges away)

Haymitch: Oh Lord, why did I have to hug _her_?

Effie: As if I enjoyed it?!

Thresh (taunts): Haymitch hugged Effie, Haymitch hugged Effie...

Haymitch: Shut up. (slaps Thresh)

Thresh: Touchy.

Prim: I dare you to hug her again!

Rue: Yeah!

Haymitch (grumbles): I will first hang you two and then I will chop you up, then I will boil you and then I'll mince you, I'll fry you on marshmallow sticks and add the meat into stew...

Prim: On one condition...

Rue: You hug Effie!

Haymitch: No way. Never. Uh-uh. I'll die. I'll kill myself.

Peeta: That would be great for us. Now hug her!

Everybody except Effie and Haymitch (chants): Hug her! Hug her! Hug her! Hug her! (etc. etc.)

Haymitch: FINE FINE! I'll hug her!

(Haymitch throws his arms around Effie and she blushes and then he throws up on her)

Haymitch (to Rue and Prim): Good?

Rue and Prim: (smirks) Great.

(Meanwhile, Katniss is trying to persuade Effie not to sue him or she'll just get embarrassed again and it seems to work and everyone gets back into position to read again)

** which she barely manages to fend off. The mayor looks distressed. Since all of this is being televised, right now District 12 is the laughingstock of Panem, and he knows it. He quickly tries to pull the attention back to the reaping by introducing Effie Trinket. Bright and bubbly as ever, Effie Trinket trots to the podium and gives her signature, "Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!" Her pink hair must be a wig because her curls have shifted slightly off-center since her encounter with Haymitch. **

**She goes on a bit about what an honor it is to be here, although everyone knows she's just aching to get bumped up to a better district where they have proper victors, not drunks who molest you in front of the entire nation.**

Haymitch: Nice wording you got there, Katniss.

Katniss: Why thank you.

Effie: I'm going to sue all of you.

** Through the crowd, I spot Gale looking back at me with a ghost of a smile. As reapings go, this one at least has a slight entertainment factor. But suddenly I am thinking of Gale and his forty-two names in that big glass ball and how the odds are not in his favor. Not compared to a lot of the boys. And maybe he's thinking the same thing about me because his face darkens and he turns away. **

**"But there are still thousands of slips," I wish I could whisper to him.**

Gale: Thanks, Catnip.

Effie (sighs): Ah...Young love...

(Peeta smacks Effie for Katniss)

Katniss: Thanks.

Effie (muffled by the hands of someone, probably Rhea): I shwear I'll shue you blall!

** It's time for the drawing. Effie Trinket says as she always does, "Ladies first!" and crosses to the glass ball with the girls' names. She reaches in, digs her hand deep into the ball, and pulls out a slip of paper. The crowd draws in a collective breath and then you can hear a pin drop, and I'm feeling nauseous and so desperately hoping that it's not me, that it's not me, that it's not me. Effie Trinket crosses back to the podium, smoothes the slip of paper, and reads out the name in a clear voice. And it's not me. It's Primrose Everdeen.**

**

* * *

**

(Katniss closes the book)

Katniss: Well, that's the first chapter.

Gale: That was really weird.

Peeta: _Extremely_ weird.

Haymitch: Totally.

Effie: Well _I_ think that was a great little bedtime story! Now, all we need is a little snack! Oh, how I _love_ bedtime snack!

Rue: The only thing weird here is Effie.

Prim: What else is new?

Gale (thinking): _I finally a little bit more about Katniss. This will be my trump card against Peeta. Mwahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!_

Peeta (thinking): _Katniss has such an amazing and interesting point of view. Throughout the book, I'll know her feelings for me and...Yes! Gale _will_ be beaten!!!!!!!!! Mwahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!_

Katniss (thinking): _I really hope Peeta and Gale aren't plotting against each--Oh. Yeah, there they go!_

(Gale and Peeta are snarling at each other and growling to let the other know that "Katniss is mine". Katniss rolls her eyes and then Gale and Peeta are gnashing their teeth and pounding their fist against their hand)

Rue (thinking): _Katniss and the gang don't know why they're doing this. I can't really tell them because Rhea will...But, she can't sense telepathic waves!_

(Rue concentrates hard and gets a message to Prim)

Prim (thinking): _Such and interesting story and--You guys--What? What was that?--Are going to be--Huh? What?--Killed after--KILLED? This must be Rue. "You guys are going to be killed after." After what?_

(Prim looks worried)

Haymitch (drunk, somehow): Rue, why's you's looks so zad?

(Prim acts as if she can't hear Haymitch)

Haymitch: Ay! Rue...Why's you's so bummed ouz?

Rhea: The girl's in thought, man! I shall bestow divine punishment, HAI-YAH!

(Rhea bonks Haymitch on the head and his head...disappears?)

Prim (looks at Haymitch, bored, then her eyes widen and screeches): !!!!!!!!

Haymitch (perplexed): Huh? What? Why are you shouting, ya little nitwit?

(Prim grabs Rue's sleeve)

Prim: Look, Rue...

Rue: Huh? (turns around and looks at Haymitch) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haymitch: Hey! What the--CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON AROUND HERE??!!

Peeta (all scientific and stuff): Well, the female species are providing very loud vocal sounds in result of your topmost body part evaporated or has been misplaced somewhere.

Gale (sighs): Translation? We can't see your head.

Katniss: Rhea bestowed upon you "divine punishment" and I _like_ it!

Rhea: Thank you. Now, come on, we don't have all eon, you know.

Effie: Are we getting a snack, oh I _love_--

Thresh: Yes, yes, we know you love midnight snack and all, we're going to grab a few z's and then you will continue reading.

Haymitch: Can we put my head visible before that?

Rhea: Nope.

Haymitch (mutters): Cruelty to elder, cruelty to elders!

Rhea: I'm a couple eons old so no, you're not my elder.

Effie (with a gleam in her eyes): Did you go through cosmetic surgery? And if you did, which one? And how did you live so long! Oh, I've got to know the secrets!

Rhea: Well, you first die.

(Effie's jaw drops)

Rhea: And then you have to get resurrected a few hundred times

(Effie's tongue hangs out)

Rhea: And then you have to be good friend with the Devil!

(Effie faints)

Rhea: Did I scare her too much?

(Everybody that's conscious shakes their head vigorously)

Rhea: OK, well, tut-tut. Your rooms are over there (points to several doors) and you are to sleep. No but's, and's, or why's.

(Everybody files into their rooms that are labeled clearly over the doors)

Rhea (to the readers, in other words, _you_): OK, we'll just play a little prank on them, all right? Stay tuned for the next chapter, oh and...

_**May the odds **_ever **_be in your favor!_**

Tee-hee!


	3. Chapter 2: Switched! No Head Haymitch

**I hope you guys will continue reading the fanfiction and telling your friends about it. If you have suggestions, shoot 'em at me. I'm all for them. Please review it and add it to your favorites or such.**

**I'm going to scare you guys, I'm thinking about dropping the fanfiction, I mean, not a lot of people read it and, well, I just think I don't have a lot of time for it. Maybe I'll continue it if enough people like it and review it. Please comment on this matter…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything, **_**anything at all**_** that Suzanne Collins created. Sad, but true. That's life for you! Hey, I rhymed.**

**Claimer: I own everything else, hah!**

**OK, I have a new system for you all, I will have a new thing up here that says "Progress" and all you have to do is looks at it to see where I am! **

**Progress: FINISHED!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!! Sorry for the delay *blush*  
**

**ENJOY! No, I always use that, it's too annoying…Hmm…How about…**

**HAVE A BALL! OK, that's just weird. ANYWAY, continuing...

* * *

**Haymitch: I had a weird dream...

Katniss: I slept like a log.

Gale: I didn't have any dreams.

Rue: Katniss, do you know where Buttercup is?

Katniss: Huh? Why do you need to know, Rue?

Prim: What are you talking about, _I'm_ Rue.

Katniss: No, you're Prim.

Rue: Quack, quack.

Katniss: Stop, guys! Be serious, I know you guys are just playing a prank on me, but I found out, now stop.

Rue: No! I feel like someone's--

Prim: --Playing a prank on--

Rue and Prim: US!

Rhea (suspiciously whistling): I didn't do it...

Rue and Prim (evilly glaring at Rhea): Rhea...........

Rhea: I DIDN'T DO IT!!! Wait--!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Rue and Prim get out machine guns [from Effie I'm guessing...?] and start chasing Rhea)

Rhea: But I'm already dead, you can't kill me again! You--OW! My butt! My butt!

Prim: Then why are you running if you can die again?!

Rue: Yeah, why?!

Rhea: HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peeta (asks as if nothing is happening): OK, well, who's going to read this time?

Katniss: Me again?

Haymitch: I insist I do it.

(Faint snores are heard)

Thresh: Effie, now is not the time to be sleeping...

Effie (drooling): But I _like_ pumpkin pie...Please...?

Thresh: Wake up, Effie, it's Sterling Knight and he wants to kiss you.

Effie (jumps up): Really?! Where is he, where is he??!!

(Thresh slaps Effie)

Thresh: Idiot.

(Rue and Prim have calmed down enough for Rhea to slip in a few words.

Rhea: You guys have to keep reading, the Contract is still Intact.

Katniss: Um, OK.

Haymitch: Then I'll read it!

Gale: Please, Haymitch, you still don't have a head.

Katniss: Hey, yeah! Haymitch, you still don't have a head!

Haymitch: I kind of figured that out already...

Gale: Can I read?

Rhea: Sure.

(A book pops into Gale's hands)

Gale: Oh, cool!

Rhea: Start then.

* * *

**One time, when I was in a blind in a tree, waiting motionless for game to wander by, I dozed off and fell ten feet to the ground, landing on my back. It was as if the impact had knocked every wisp of air from my lungs, and I lay there struggling to inhale, to exhale, to do anything.**

Gale: Ooh! That must've hurt...

Peeta: She's probably exaggerating...

(Katniss gives Peeta a look that says, "Do you really think so?")

Peeta: OK, I guess not...

Prim: Oh! I fell out of a tree once! And my brother jumped from a four story building!

Haymitch: I'm supposing that's Rue, from the tone of the voice. Your family is very strange. No wonder why you're so odd.

Prim: Why thank you. It runs in the family.

**That's how I feel now, trying to remember how to breathe, unable to speak, totally stunned as the name bounces around the inside of my skull. Someone is gripping my arm, a boy from the Seam, and I think maybe I started to fall and he caught me.**

Peeta: Ermph, that was me, somehow...

Katniss: What?

**There must have been some mistake. This can't be hap pening. Prim was one slip of paper in thousands! Her chances of being chosen so remote that I'd not even both ered to worry about her. Hadn't I done everything? Taken the tesserae, refused to let her do the same? One slip. One slip in thousands. The odds had been entirely in her favor.**

Effie: _Entirely_ in their favor!

Rue: Oh shut up, you naked person.

Effie: I like to sing "Rubber Duckie" when I'm in the bath-tub.

Haymitch (grossed out): TMI! Too much information!!!!!

** But it hadn't mattered.**

**Somewhere far away, I can hear the crowd murmuring unhappily as they always do when a twelve-year-old gets chosen because no one thinks this is fair.**

Effie (smiling): Well, nothing's fair!

Gale: Especially _you_!

Effie (frowning): Why do you say that?

Gale: Never mind...

** And then I see her, the blood drained from her face, hands clenched in fists at her sides, walking with stiff, small steps up toward the stage, passing me, and I see the back of her blouse has become untucked and hangs out over her skirt. It's this detail, the untucked blouse forming a ducktail, that brings me back to myself.**

**"Prim!" The strangled cry comes out of my throat, and my muscles begin to move again. "Prim!" I don't need to shove through the crowd. The other kids make way immediately allowing me a straight path to the stage. I reach her just as she is about to mount the steps. With one sweep of my arm, I push her behind me.**

**"I volunteer!" I gasp. "I volunteer as tribute!"**

Rue: Thanks, Katniss.

Katniss: You're welcome...Rue...or is it Prim?

Prim: It doesn't really matter, we both want to thank you.

Katniss: OK?

Thresh: And I want eat cheese.

Gale: WHAT?!

**There's some confusion on the stage. District 12 hasn't had a volunteer in decades and the protocol has become rusty. The rule is that once a tribute's name has been pulled from the ball, another eligible boy, if a boy's name has been read, or girl, if a girl's name has been read, can step forward to take his or her place. In some districts, in which winning the reaping is such a great honor, people are eager to risk their lives, the volunteering is complicated. But in District 12, where the word tribute is pretty much synonymous with the word corpse, volunteers are all but extinct. **

Effie: Sad, really.

Madge: I haven't talked in a long time.

(Thresh kisses Madge on the cheek)

Gale, Katniss, Peeta: HUH?!

Madge: What?

Gale: He just, just, just...YOU KNOW!

Katniss: Like, uh, lip-locked...On the cheek...

Madge: Huh?

Peeta: Like, you know... (whispers) kiss....

**"Lovely!" says Effie Trinket. "But I believe there's a small matter of introducing the reaping winner and then asking for volunteers, and if one does come forth then we, um . . ." she trails off, unsure herself.**

**"What does it matter?" says the mayor. He's looking at me with a pained expression on his face. He doesn't know me really, but there's a faint recognition there. I am the girl who brings the strawberries. The girl his daughter might have spoken of on occasion. The girl who five years ago stood huddled with her mother and sister, as he presented her, the oldest child, with a medal of valor. A medal for her father, vaporized in the mines. Does he remember that? "What does it matter?" he repeats gruffly. "Let her come forward."**

**Prim is screaming hysterically behind me. She's wrapped her skinny arms around me like a vice. "No, Katniss! No! You can't go!"**

Peeta (laughing hysterically): BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Rue [remember, it's Prim!] and Katniss slap Peeta)

Peeta: Hey! Thresh tickled me!

Thresh: I did not.

Prim: Yeah! _I_ tickled you, dummy!

(Peeta slaps Prim [who is Rue?])

**"Prim, let go," I say harshly, because this is upsetting me and I don't want to cry. When they televise the replay of the reapings tonight, everyone will make note of my tears, and I'll be marked as an easy target. A weakling. I will give no one that satisfaction. "Let go!"**

**I can feel someone pulling her from my back. I turn and see Gale has lifted Prim off the ground and she's thrashing in his arms. "Up you go, Catnip," he says, in a voice he's fighting to keep steady,**

(Gale blushes)

Effie: Aww...Young--

Peeta (angry): Would you stop saying that every time Gale or I blush at a sentence?!

Effie: But it is such a nice love, young lo--

(Peeta punches Effie and she's knocked out)

Haymitch: You're going a bit too far there.

Peeta (rolling eyes): And this is coming from a guy who threatened two little kids that they would be boiled and eaten....

Haymitch (protesting): Hey! I only threatened, you actually _punched_ Effie!

Peeta (growling): And I'm going to regret it if you don't shut up.

Katniss: Guys! Stop!

** and then he carries Prim off toward my mother. I steel myself and climb the steps.**

**"Well, bravo!" gushes Effie Trinket. "That's the spirit of the Games!" She's pleased to finally have a district with a little action going on in it. "What's your name?"**

**I swallow hard. "Katniss Everdeen," I say.**

**"I bet my buttons that was your sister. Don't want her to steal all the glory, do we?**

(Peeta, Gale, Katniss, Prim, Rue, Thresh, and Haymitch glare at Effie because of her stupid stupidity)

Effie: What did I do?

Prim: Would you like me to list them in alphabetical, chronological, or by the worst?

Effie: Uh..........

Rue: Her point is that that comment in the book is kind of unnecessary and it shows only how much more idiotic you are. Plus, we'd like you to know how many problems you have.

Effie (depressed): You can recite them in chronological order...

Prim and Rue: First, you almost _always_ have on that _silly_ accent and that _stupid_ wig on! Second of all--

Thresh: Ok, ok, guys, we get the point.

Prim (accusingly at Effie): _She_ doesn't!

Madge: That's enough...Please...

(Effie looks at Madge and Thresh with adoration in her eyes)

Effie: I _love_ you two! Oh come let Aunty Effie give you a great big hug!

(Madge and Thresh are trapped in a huge tight hug from Effie)

(Peeta and Gale gag)

** Come on, everybody! Let's give a big round of applause to our newest tribute!" trills Effie Trinket.**

**To the everlasting credit of the people of District 12, not one person claps. Not even the ones holding betting slips, the ones who are usually beyond caring. Possibly because they know me from the Hob, or knew my father, or have encountered Prim, who no one can help loving. So instead of acknowledging applause, I stand there unmoving while they take part in the boldest form of dissent they can manage. Silence. Which says we do not agree. We do not condone. All of this is wrong.**

**Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don't expect it because I don't think of District 12 as a place that cares about me. But a shift has occurred since I stepped up to take Prim's place, and now it seems I have become some one precious. At first one, then another, then almost every member of the crowd touches the three middle fingers of their left hand to their lips and holds it out to me. It is an old and rarely used gesture of our district, occasionally seen at funerals. It means thanks, it means admiration, it means good-bye to someone you love.**

Effie (tears in her eyes, from Madge and Thresh but also from the passage that was just read): So...so...Beautiful...

Peeta (annoyed): Ugh, she must faint a lot in order to recover so fast, I mean, what the heck?!

**Now I am truly in danger of crying, but fortunately Haymitch chooses this time to come staggering across the stage to congratulate me. "Look at her. Look at this one!" he hollers, throwing an arm around my shoulders. He's surprisingly strong for such a wreck. "I like her!" His breath reeks of liquor and it's been a long time since he's bathed. "Lots of . . . " He can't think of the word for a while. "Spunk!" he says triumphantly. "More than you!" he releases me and starts for the front of the stage. "More than you!" he shouts, pointing directly into a camera.**

Haymitch: Ha! I remember that. I was meaning to, um, you know, uh, er...

Madge (rolling eyes): I'm supposing that means you _don't_ remember?

Haymitch (persisting): No! I remember! I meant to, uh...er...um...geh...

Prim: No you don't know, just get on with the book.

**Is he addressing the audience or is he so drunk he might actually be taunting the Capitol? I'll never know because just as he's opening his mouth to continue, Haymitch plummets off the stage and knocks himself unconscious.**

(Thresh bursts into laughter)

Thresh (laughing and trying not to): S-sorry, hahahaha, that's, hehe, so...FUNNY! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Prim [who is actually Rue] slaps Thresh)

Prim: Keep it together, man!!!

Thresh (stops laughing): Oh yeah, sorry.

Rue: You better be! (slaps Thresh)

Thresh: Stop slapping me.

(Madge slaps Thresh)

Thresh (kind of angry): Stop slapping me!

(Effie slaps Thresh)

Thresh (angry): I said, stop slapping me!

(Rhea pops in and slaps Thresh)

Thresh (totally angry): WOULD YOU STOP SLAPPING ME??!!

(Peeta, Gale, and Katniss slap him one more time before he goes off, red as a fire truck)

**He's disgusting, but I'm grateful. With every camera gleefully trained on him, I have just enough time to release the small, choked sound in my throat and compose myself. I put my hands behind my back and stare into the distance.**

**I can see the hills I climbed this morning with Gale. For a moment, I yearn for something . . . the idea of us leaving the district . . . making our way in the woods . . . but I know I was right about not running off. Because who else would have volunteered for Prim?**

Madge: I would've.

Katniss: Yeah, right.

Madge: If you won't believe me, I won't let you, but I'm saying...I would've.

Peeta: Right...

Prim: Oh! I know a funny story!

(Prim whispers in Rue's ear and Rue brightens up)

Rue: All right!

Prim: Here it goes! You all know the story of Noah and the Ark, right?

Everybody: Yes.

Prim: I am the voice of God and Prim--I mean Rue, is Noah.

Everybody: OK...

Prim (deep voice): Noah, I want you to build me an ark.

Rue (incredulous): Right...What's an ark?

Prim (deep voice): Noah, I want to make it 40 cubits by 20 cubits **[A/N: Sorry, I know this is probably wrong according to the Bible, but that's not the point. Sorry again.] **

Rue (skeptical): Right...What's a cubit?

Prim (deep voice): Noah, I want to get two of each animal, one male and one female.

Rue (doubtful): Right...Now really, who is this?

Prim and Rue: THE END!

(Everybody is silent)

Prim: What?

(Everybody [except Rue and Prim of course] start bursting out laughing)

Rue: I'm confused...

**Haymitch is whisked away on a stretcher, and Effie Trinket is trying to get the ball rolling again. "What an exciting day!" she warbles as she attempts to straighten her wig, which has listed severely to the right. "But more excite ment to come! It's time to choose our boy tribute!" Clearly hoping to contain her tenuous hair situation, she plants one hand on her head as she crosses to the ball that contains the boys' names and grabs the first slip she encounters. She zips back to the podium, and I don't even have time to wish for Gale's safety when she's reading the name. "Peeta Mellark."**

**Peeta Mellark!**

**Oh, no, I think. Not him. Because I recognize this name, although I have never spoken directly to its owner. Peeta Mellark.**

Peeta (blushing): You actually noticed me? You recognized me?

(Gale is muttering under his breath but he is not too angry)

Katniss: Sure, whatever.

(Gale is smiling at this comment, Peeta, of course, is fuming...at Gale)

Peeta: Grr...

Gale: Grr...

Peeta: Grrrrr....

Gale: Grrrrrr.....

Peeta: Grrrrrrrrrr.........

Gale: Grrrrrrrrr.........

Peeta: Grrrrrr-rrrrrrrr......

Gale: Grrrrrrrrr-rrrrrrrrr.....

Peeta: Grrrr---

Katniss: Would you guys shut up?!

**No, the odds are not in my favor today. I watch him as he makes his way toward the stage. Medium height, stocky build, ashy blond hair that falls in waves over his forehead. The shock of the moment is registering on his face, you can see his struggle to remain emotionless, but his blue eyes show the alarm I've seen so often in prey. Yet he climbs steadily onto the stage and takes his place.**

**Effie Trinket asks for volunteers, but no one steps forward. He has two older brothers, I know, I've seen them in the bakery, but one is probably too old now to volunteer and the other won't. This is standard. Family devotion only goes so far for most people on reaping day. What I did was the radical thing.**

**The mayor begins to read the long, dull Treaty of Treason as he does every year at this point — it's required — but I'm not listening to a word.**

**Why him? I think. Then I try to convince myself it doesn't matter. Peeta Mellark and I are not friends.**

Gale (happy): Ouch, man!

Peeta: Shut up.

(Gale is happily humming)

** Not even neighbors. We don't speak. Our only real interaction happened years ago. He's probably forgotten it. But I haven't and I know I never will. . . .**

**It was during the worst time. My father had been killed in the mine accident three months earlier in the bitterest January anyone could remember. The numbness of his loss had passed, and the pain would hit me out of nowhere, doubling me over, racking my body with sobs. Where are you? I would cry out in my mind. Where have you gone? Of course, there was never any answer.**

Random Man Who Randomly Popped Up (or RMWRPU): Oh, hello all.

Rue: GACK! Who're you?!

RMWRPU: I am the Random Man Who Randomly Popped Up.

Prim: WHAT?!

RMWRPU: Just kidding, I am a dead person.

Madge: We figured that much...

RMWRPU: I am here to send Thresh back...And you too, Madge.

Madge (happy): Yippee! It's my turn to stay back, right, RMWRPU?

RMWRPU: Yup!

Thresh: Aw, shucks...

RMWRPU: Come on now, not any time to lose or Rhea will have my head!

(The Random Person Who Randomly Popped Up takes Madge and Thresh by the elbows)

RMWRPU: Now on the count of three, you will--

Prim (accusingly at RMWRPU): Oh, my best friend once did that with her younger brothers and she dislocated their elbows.

RMWRPU (annoyed): I have an appointment to get to, kid. (to Madge and Thresh) Now on the count of thr--

Prim (accusingly at RMWRPU): It's not very nice to dislocate someone's elbows, sir! It's even _un_-nicer for you to dislocate the neck! My grandmother dislocated her neck because she was doing the belly dance--

Gale (incredulous): _Belly dance?!_

Prim (ignoring Gale): --and then one of her friends accidentally made her knock into a very blunt thing with so much force that she broke her neck. My grandmother sued her friend and made her pay all the medical fees and bills. I actually got enough food in my belly for once. Unfortunately, my grandmother died about a month later and the friend ran away. We never heard from her again.

RMWRPU (grouchy): You'd wonder why...ANYHOW, let us go, Thresh...Madge.

(RMWRPU quickly holds hands with Thresh and Madge and zaps away, to escape from Prim [Rue])

**The district had given us a small amount of money as compensation for his death, enough to cover one month of grieving at which time my mother would be expected to get a job. Only she didn't. She didn't do anything but sit propped up in a chair or, more often, huddled under the blankets on her bed, eyes fixed on some point in the distance. Once in a while, she'd stir, get up as if moved by some urgent purpose, only to then collapse back into stillness.**

Peeta: Oh that's...That's...That's terrible...

(Katniss starts whimpering a little and Gale holds her in his arms)

Gale (soothingly): It's OK, Catnip, it's OK...

(Gale smirks at Peeta and Rhea pops in)

Rhea: Point for Gale! Gale: 1 - Peeta: 0

(Rhea pops and disappears, Peeta is smoldering)

** No amount of pleading from Prim seemed to affect her.**

**I was terrified. I suppose now that my mother was locked in some dark world of sadness, but at the time, all I knew was that I had lost not only a father, but a mother as well. At eleven years old, with Prim just seven, I took over as head of the family. There was no choice. I bought our food at the market and cooked it as best I could and tried to keep Prim and myself looking presentable. Because if it had become known that my mother could no longer care for us, the district would have taken us away from her and placed us in the community home.**

Prim: Community homes are awful. I had to live in one before and it was terrible! You only take a bath if you please the Masters, I mean Caretakers, or if you're a favorite of one. There was this girl, Jenny, she was a favorite and she was treated like a queen! Everybody hated her and one day, little ol' Fath chopped her up. Fath was put in the Facility for Mentally Disturbed Children that Need Surgery for a whole year! It drove him bonkers because he wasn't mentally insane or anything! He committed suicide after he left the hospital.

(Everybody is silent)

Gale: Shut. Up.

Peeta: _Now._

** I'd grown up seeing those home kids at school. The sadness, the marks of angry hands on their faces, the hopelessness that curled their shoulders forward.**

Prim: Not necessarily, my shoulder don't hunch forwards? Well actually, my face healed quite fast. Mother Crap--

Haymitch (cracking up): CRAP?! Mother CRAP?!

Prim (rolling her eyes): All right, all right, her name was Mother Crud...

RMWRPU (cracking up as well): Mother _Crud_?! Who names their kid _Crud_?!

Prim (ignoring Madge and RMWRPU's comments): ...And she liked to hit us on the face. I remember one time when Gerard stole an M&M and she punished him. He never looked the same way again. (sighs sadly)

Katniss: Once again...

Peeta and Gale: Shut _up_.

** I could never let that happen to Prim. Sweet, tiny Prim who cried when I cried before she even knew the reason, who brushed and plaited my mother's hair before we left for school, who still polished my father's shaving mirror each night because he'd hated the layer of coal dust that settled on everything in the Seam. The community home would crush her like a bug.**

Rue: Are you saying that I'm a _bug_?!

Katniss: Ugh. If you keep that up, yes.

Rue: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Effie: Aw, dear, don't cry like a little insect...

(Rue slaps Effie and continues crying)

** So I kept our predicament a secret.**

**But the money ran out and we were slowly starving to death. There's no other way to put it. I kept telling myself if I could only hold out until May, just May 8th, I would turn twelve and be able to sign up for the tesserae and get that precious grain and oil to feed us. Only there were still several weeks to go. We could well be dead by then.**

Peeta: Wrong-o. You _would_ be well dead by then.

Katniss: Would you just shut up?!

Gale: Now, now, Catnip, you know how a pea-brain head works, it doesn't.

Rhea (dropping in): Ouch. And Gale scores another one! Gale: 2 - Peeta: Zero, nada, zilch, ditto.

Peeta (steaming): You...Make...Me...Feel...Like...A...

Gale: Pea-brain? Nincompoop? Dimwit? Gilly-gauper?

Peeta (mad, like, totally mad): ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Prim (chewing on a chip): Stop acting like a child, Peeta, and get on with the book.

**Starvation's not an uncommon fate in District 12. Who hasn't seen the victims? Older people who can't work. Children from a family with too many to feed. Those injured in the mines. Straggling through the streets. And one day, you come upon them sitting motionless against a wall or lying in the Meadow, you hear the wails from a house, and the Peacekeepers are called in to retrieve the body. Starvation is never the cause of death officially. It's always the flu, or exposure, or pneumonia. But that fools no one.**

Rue (unnaturally happy): Absolutely no one!

Prim (shocked): HEY! Who drank my happy juice??!!

Rue (once again, unnaturally happy): Oh? That was happy juice? No one wonder I feel like I'm flying...

Prim (angry): THAT WAS MY HAPPY JUICE HOW DARE YOU DRINK MY HAPPY JUICE YOU SHALL SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES FOOLISH HUMAN WHO DRANK MY HAPPY JUICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RMWRPU: Rue, honey, happy juice is strictly forbidden. I thought you learned your lesson when you unconsciously made Foxx--(to audience) that's Foxface to you--pee in her pants and made Cato gag on his lollipop as well as make Glimmer faint and Clove upchuck on Dean--(to audience) that's the boy from District 3 to you.

Prim: It was their fault they didn't listen to my warnings.

**On the afternoon of my encounter with Peeta Mellark, the rain was falling in relentless icy sheets. I had been in town, trying to trade some threadbare old baby clothes of Prim's in the public market, but there were no takers. Although I had been to the Hob on several occasions with my father, I was too frightened to venture into that rough, gritty place alone. The rain had soaked through my father's hunting jacket, leaving me chilled to the bone. For three days, we'd had nothing but boiled water with some old dried mint leaves I'd found in the back of a cupboard.**

Gale: Ooh, that must've been tough.

Katniss (tremulous): I still shiver when I think about it...

(Peeta pulls Katniss into a warm embrace. Rhea shows up)

Rhea (quietly, mostly towards Peeta and Gale): Ding-ding! Gale: 2 - Peeta: 1

(Rhea half disappears before coming back and pointing accusingly at RMWRPU)

Rhea: _Why_ are you here, Moose?

Moose: Uh...

** By the time the market closed, I was shaking so hard I dropped my bundle of baby clothes in a mud puddle. I didn't pick it up for fear I would keel over and be unable to regain my feet. Besides, no one wanted those clothes.**

**I couldn't go home. Because at home was my mother with her dead eyes and my little sister, with her hollow cheeks and cracked lips. I couldn't walk into that room with the smoky fire from the damp branches I had scavenged at the edge of the woods after the coal had run out, my bands empty of any hope.**

**I found myself stumbling along a muddy lane behind the shops that serve the wealthiest townspeople. The merchants live above their businesses, so I was essentially in their backyards. I remember the outlines of garden beds not yet planted for the spring, a goat or two in a pen, one sodden dog tied to a post, hunched defeated in the muck.**

**All forms of stealing are forbidden in District 12. Punishable by death.**

Prim: Oh! I remember once...Er...What's her name again? Oh yeah! Grendel! Okay, so Grendel was a cat and she got strangled to death because she was caught breaking and entering then stealing.

Gale: ...Rue...I will personally kill you if you do not personally shut your mouth...up.

** But it crossed my mind that there might be something in the trash bins, and those were fair game. Perhaps a bone at the butcher's or rotted vegetables at the grocer's, something no one but my family was desperate enough to eat. Unfortunately, the bins had just been emptied.**

**When I passed the baker's, the smell of fresh bread was so overwhelming I felt dizzy.**

(Peeta blushes)

Effie: Ah...Young--

(Peeta claps his hand over Effie's mouth, red as a fire truck)

Peeta: Sorry, Katniss, about that...

** The ovens were in the back, and a golden glow spilled out the open kitchen door. I stood mesmerized by the heat and the luscious scent until the rain interfered, running its icy fingers down my back, forcing me back to life. I lifted the lid to the baker's trash bin and found it spotlessly, heartlessly bare.**

**Suddenly a voice was screaming at me and I looked up to see the baker's wife, telling me to move on and did I want her to call the Peacekeepers and how sick she was of having those brats from the Seam pawing through her trash. The words were ugly and I had no defense.**

Gale: Oof!

Peeta (even more red): Ditto.

** As I carefully replaced the lid and backed away, I noticed him, a boy with blond hair peering out from behind his mother's back. I'd seen him at school. He was in my year, but I didn't know his name. He stuck with the town kids, so how would I? His mother went back into the bakery, grumbling, but he must have been watching me as I made my way behind the pen that held their pig and leaned against the far side of an old apple tree. The realization that I'd have nothing to take home had finally sunk in. My knees buckled and I slid down the tree trunk to its roots. It was too much. I was too sick and weak and tired, oh, so tired. Let them call the Peacekeepers and take us to the community home, I thought. Or better yet, let me die right here in the rain.**

Effie (gasping): Oh _no_! You can't do that! Then who would be lovers with Peeta???!!!

Gale: Uh. No one.

Peeta: Duh. I would probably commit suicide when I hear that or die in the bloodbath.

Prim: True...Very true...

Haymitch: I second that.

Peeta: Shut up!

**There was a clatter in the bakery and I heard the woman screaming again and the sound of a blow, and I vaguely wondered what was going on. Feet sloshed toward me through the mud and I thought, It's her. She's coming to drive me away with a stick. But it wasn't her. It was the boy. In his arms, he carried two large loaves of bread that must have fallen into the fire because the crusts were scorched black.**

**His mother was yelling, "Feed it to the pig, you stupid creature! Why not? No one decent will buy burned bread!"**

**He began to tear off chunks from the burned parts and toss them into the trough, and the front bakery bell rung and the mother disappeared to help a customer.**

**The boy never even glanced my way, but I was watching him. Because of the bread, because of the red weal that stood out on his cheekbone. What had she hit him with?**

Peeta (happily--unnaturally): A hot iron stick!

(All eyes stare at Peeta)

Haymitch: You proud o' that or what, kid?

Peeta: Yup!

(Prim [Rue] takes out a hot iron stick and slaps Peeta in the face with it)

Peeta: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gale: Wimp.

**My parents never hit us. I couldn't even imagine it. The boy took one look back to the bakery as if checking that the coast was clear, then, his attention back on the pig, he threw a loaf of bread in my direction. The second quickly followed, and he sloshed back to the bakery, closing the kitchen door tightly behind him.**

**I stared at the loaves in disbelief. They were fine, perfect really, except for the burned areas. Did he mean for me to have them? He must have. Because there they were at my feet. Before anyone could witness what had happened I shoved the loaves up under my shirt, wrapped the hunting jacket tightly about me, and walked swiftly away. The heat of the bread burned into my skin, but I clutched it tighter, clinging to life.**

**By the time I reached home, the loaves had cooled some what, but the insides were still warm. When I dropped them on the table, Prim's hands reached to tear off a chunk, but I made her sit, forced my mother to join us at the table, and poured warm tea. I scraped off the black stuff and sliced the bread. We ate an entire loaf, slice by slice. It was good hearty bread, filled with raisins and nuts.**

**I put my clothes to dry at the fire, crawled into bed, and fell into a dreamless sleep. It didn't occur to me until the next morning that the boy might have burned the bread on purpose. Might have dropped the loaves into the flames, knowing it meant being punished, and then delivered them to me.**

Peeta: Ah. I did not burn it. Alvin did.

All: Who?

Peeta: My older brother Alvin. He put the blame on me, knowing that Mother favors him and hates me.

Rue: Ouch.

** But I dismissed this. It must have been an accident.**

Peeta: Once again. No. It wasn't.

Katniss: Are you talking to me? Or the book?

** Why would he have done it? He didn't even know me.**

Peeta (angry): YEAH I DID!!!!!!

Haymitch: Would you just shut up?!

Gale: Exactly!

Effie: Now, now, boys, he's just showing his affections for Katniss...

Prim: You too. Shut up.

** Still, just throwing me the bread was an enormous kindness that would have surely resulted in a beating if discovered. I couldn't explain his actions.**

**We ate slices of bread for breakfast and headed to school. It was as if spring had come overnight. Warm sweet air. Fluffy clouds. At school, I passed the boy in the hall, his cheek had swelled up and his eye had blackened. He was with his friends and didn't acknowledge me in any way. But as I collected Prim and started for home that afternoon, I found him staring at me from across the school yard. Our eyes met for only a second, then he turned his head away.**

Effie: Ah--

Rue and Prim (faking the Capitol's accent): Young love.

Prim: The first time was funny. In fact, it was hilarious.

Rue: The second time was okay, it was fine.

Prim: The third time was sort of stupid, but it was bearable.

Rue: Then the others...

Prim: Were just outrageously unnecessary.

(Effie shuts up **[A/N: YIPPEE!!]**)

** I dropped my gaze, embarrassed, and that's when I saw it. The first dandelion of the year. A bell went off in my head. I thought of the hours spent in the woods with my father and I knew how we were going to survive.**

**To this day, I can never shake the connection between this boy, Peeta Mellark, and the bread that gave me hope, and the dandelion that reminded me that I was not doomed.**

(Effie looks as if she were about to say something but closes her mouth and looks sadly at Katniss for help. She dismisses the gaze with a glare)

** And more than once, I have turned in the school hallway and caught his eyes trained on me, only to quickly flit away. I feel like I owe him something,**

Gale: Catnip.

Katniss: What?

Gale: You.

Katniss: Yeah. I know I'm Catnip, so?

Gale: Don't.

Katniss: Don't what?

Gale: Owe.

Katniss: Owe who what?

Gale: Anything.

(Awkward silence)

Katniss: Well that cleared up a lot. On with the story!

** and I hate owing people.**

Gale: Exactly.

Katniss: Yeah...Wait what?

Gale: You don't owe Peeta anything. Especially if you hate him.

Peeta (angry): HEY! She just said she didn't like owing people! Not that she doesn't like the person she's owing!

Katniss (rolling her eyes): You're an exception.

Gale: Ha!

** Maybe if I had thanked him at some point, I'd be feeling less conflicted now. I thought about it a couple of times, but the opportunity never seemed to present itself. And now it never will. Because we're going to be thrown into an arena to fight to the death. Exactly how am I supposed to work in a thank-you in there?**

Prim: YOU'RE SUCH A TURTLE, MELLARK!!

(All eyes are on Prim [Rue])

Peeta: Er...thank you?

** Somehow it just won't seem sincere if I'm trying to slit his throat.**

Prim: Ha! Good one, Katniss!

Katniss: Thank...You...?

Peeta (weakly): Hehe...

**The mayor finishes the dreary Treaty of Treason and motions for Peeta and me to shake hands. His are as solid and warm as those loaves of bread. Peeta looks me right in the eye and gives my hand what I think is meant to be a reassuring squeeze. Maybe it's just a nervous spasm.**

(Gale explodes with laughter)

Haymitch: Gale...I understand that Miss Everdeen is being exceptional humorous today but you need to stop acting like a moron.

Effie (happily): MORON!!!!

(Peeta explodes into laughter)

Rue: You both are morons.

Prim (agreeing): Turtles.

**We turn back to face the crowd as the anthem of Panem plays.**

**Oh, well, I think. There will be twenty-four of us. Odds are someone else will kill him before I do.**

**Of course, the odds have not been very dependable of late.**

Gale: And that's the end of the chapter.

Effie: It's so...So...So...So...Um...What's that word??...

Haymitch: Dramatic? Epic? Cool?

Effie: Uh...No...It's...

RMWRPU: It's the word "gone". That's what you're going to be. "Gone". Come with me.

(Everybody cheers)

Effie (blushing): Aww...Thank you for showing your celebration of me being here while I can...

(Nobody hears her and she and RMWRPU disappear)

Katniss: SO...Who's reading the next chapter?

Peeta: If I can, could I?

Gale: No, turtle, of course you can't.

Peeta (shocked): WHAT?!

Rhea: Yeah, you can't.

Peeta (totally surprised): WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Rhea and Gale slap him at the same time)

Rhea: Haymitch, you're reading.

Haymitch: ??????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rhea: Okay, bye.

(Rhea dumps the book in Haymitch's hands and disappears)

Haymitch: Um, all right...Uh...

Prim: INTERMISSION! In other words, nap time!

* * *

**I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING FOR SO LONG!!!!!!! UGH! I'm going to try to update more....I feel so stupid...**

**Review!! YOU HAVE TO!!!!  
**


	4. Chapter 3: Wonderbread? And FOXFACE?

**Long time since I updated...I AM SOOOOO SORRY! It's been, like, months! I will update more! Sorry for the delay! R&R though!**

**Just to let you know, I will know longer be putting "Rue (Prim)" or "Prim (Rue)". You'll just have to remember yourself! Sorry for the trouble!**

**NEW CHARRIE! Emarra is introduced! You'll like her... *winks***

**NEW CHARRIE! RMWRPU is given his real name. There is also a Star Wars-ey scene...And a James Bond scene...Ehehehe... *drools***

**NEW CHARRIE! Cato and Glimmer are put in!**

**Slice of Maximum Ride there. If you don't know Maximum Ride, issokay. It's not a big part.  
**

**Peace of random information is that I am totally for Team Gale aka Galeniss / Kale. Down with Peetaniss and Katpee! Please don't do teams. It'll sound too much like Twilight and I personally dislike Twilight (no offense Twilight lovahs out there).  
**

**Progress: Finished! I'm surprised!  
**

**ENJOY!

* * *

**

Rhea: Ah, so you are all doing well I suppose? By the way, I brought Effie back.

Gale (looks down at his feet): Yeah..._Very_ well...

Rhea (smiles, oblivious to the sarcastic looks she gets): Very good. Anywho, we will need to go on to the next-

Random Red-Head: Can I stick a long-john up my nose?

(Everybody looks at her. Rhea glares at her)

Rhea: Emarra, we all know that it is rude to-

Emarra: My name's Emarra.

Rue (Prim): Hi, Emarra.

Prim (Rue): Yeah, hi, Emarra.

Rhea (irritated): -interrupt adults while they are speaking. Now if you will please-

Emarra: Hey, Katniss. You too, Lover Boy.

Katniss: Do I know you?

Emarra: How rude!

Effie (dancing, nude): SHAKE YO BOOT-AY, SHAKE YO BOOT-AY, YA YA!

Peeta: MY EEEEYYYEESSS!

(Peeta runs away, crying)

Gale (looking down even harder): H-hello, Effie.

RMWRPU: Isn't it "Shake your groove thing, shake your groove thing, yeah yeah"?

Effie: What_ever_!

Emarra: If ya'll don't know me, I'm Emarra, aka Foxface. (winks at Rue and Katniss)

Prim: I believe you're winking at _me._ Prim and my bodies got switched.

Haymitch: And what's with the Texan accent?

Emarra: Hehe. Sorry, something I just felt like doing.

Rhea: WILL YOU LET ME FRICKIN' TALK?

(Everybody shuts up)

Rhea (through a megaphone?): EMARRA WILL READ THIS TIME DUE TO SOME CIRCUMSTANCES THAT THE HIGH PRIEST BALDY OF MOUNT BALDY IN THE VALLEY OF BALDY WHO RULES SUPREMELY EVERY WHERE ON EARTH AND IN HELL SAYS PLEASE DO NOT OBJECT OR YOU WILL BE EXECUTED-

(Everybody gasps)

Rhea (without megaphone): -Oh, I'm sorry did I say executed, I meant _escorted, _yes, anyone who objects will be _escorted._

(Everyone sighs in relief)

Rhea (with megaphone): -_ESCORTED_ OUT INTO THE OTHER WORLD SLASH EARTH SLASH WHEREVER YOU LIVE BLAH BLAH BLAH ARE WE CLEAR?

(Everyone nods)

Rhea: Okay then.

(Rhea hands Emarra the book and flips open to the page she's supposed to start at)

Rhea: Begin. (poofs and disappears)

**

* * *

The moment the anthem ends, we are taken into custody. I**** don't mean we're handcuffed or anything, but a group of**** Peacekeepers marches us through the front door of the Justice**** Building.**

Haymitch: I found that rather scary.

Peeta (laughing): _YOU? You_ found that _scary_?

Haymitch (grimacing): This is coming from a boy who can't stand the fact that his "girlfriend" is being stolen away from a better man.

(Peeta shuts up)

** Maybe tributes have tried to escape in the past. I've**** never seen that happen though.**** Once inside, I'm conducted to a room and left alone. It's the**** richest place I've ever been in, with thick, deep carpets and a**** velvet couch and chairs. I know velvet because my mother has**** a dress with a collar made of the stuff. When I sit on the couch,**** I can't help running my fingers over the fabric repeatedly. It**** helps to calm me as I try to prepare for the next hour.**

Emarra: Aww...

Katniss: SHUT UP AND START READING!

Emarra: O-okay, sorry...

** The**** time allotted for the tributes to say goodbye to their loved**** ones. I cannot afford to get upset, to leave this room with puffy**** eyes and a red nose. Crying is not an option. There will be**** more cameras at the train station.**** My sister and my mother come first. I reach out to Prim**** and she climbs on my lap, her arms around my neck, head**** on my shoulder, just like she did when she was a toddler.**** My mother sits beside me and wraps her arms around us.**** For a few minutes, we say nothing.**

RMWRPU: Mustah been awkward...

Katniss: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!

(RMWRPU looks at her)

RMWRPU: Yes?

Katniss: Who are you and why do keep popping up?

RMWRPU: How rude, don't you remember what your father taught you?

Katniss: My father's dead.

RMWRPU: No, I am your father.

(Awkward moment)

Haymitch: I believe this is the awkward moment...

** Then I start telling them**** all the things they must remember to do, now that I will not be**** there to do them for them.**** Prim is not to take any tesserae. They can get by, if**** they're careful, on selling Prim's goat milk and cheese and the**** small apothecary business my mother now runs for the people**** in the Seam. Gale will get her the herbs she doesn't grow herself, ****but she must be very careful to describe them because**** he's not as familiar with them as I am.**

(Gale blushes)

Peeta (groaning): What now?

Rue (giggling): He tried bringing back Maple Rose but brought back Poison Ivy Rash once...

** He'll also bring them**** game — he and I made a pact about this a year or so ago —**** and will probably not ask for compensation, but they should**** thank him with some kind of trade, like milk or medicine.**** I don't bother suggesting Prim learn to hunt. I tried to teach**** her a couple of times and it was disastrous. The woods terrified**** her, and whenever I shot something, she'd get teary and**** talk about how we might be able to heal it if we got it home**** soon enough. But she makes out well with her goat, so I concentrate**** on that.**

(Rue blushes and Prim slaps her)

Prim: C'mon, Prim, you can do better than that!

Effie: Now, now, you mustn't be mean to your-

(Rue slaps her)

Rue: Don't call Rue mean when you Capitol people send 24 people off to die every year. If we're called mean, what are you? Monsters?

(Effie shuts up)

** When I am done with instructions about fuel, and trading,**** and staying in school, I turn to my mother and grip her arm,**** hard. "Listen to me. Are you listening to me?" She nods,**** alarmed by my intensity. She must know what's coming. "You**** can't leave again," I say.**** My mother's eyes find the floor. **

**"I know. I won't. I couldn't**** help what—"**

**"Well, you have to help it this time. You can't clock out and**** leave Prim on her own. There's no me now to keep you both**** alive. It doesn't matter what happens. Whatever you see on**** the screen. You have to promise me you'll fight through it!" My**** voice has risen to a shout. In it is all the anger, all the fear I felt**** at her abandonment.****She pulls her arm from my grasp, moved to anger herself**** now. **

**"I was ill. I could have treated myself if I'd had the medicine**** I have now."**** That part about her being ill might be true. I've seen her**** bring back people suffering from immobilizing sadness since.**** Perhaps it is a sickness, but it's one we can't afford.**

**"Then take it. And take care of her!" I say.**

(Silence)

Emarra: Whoa, you're mean to your mum. See, I don't have a mum or a dad. I don't have a grandma or a grandpa. A few cousins though, younger than me. Their parents are dead too. I suggest being nicer to your mum, considering that you even have one.

Katniss (mumbles): I just-I was just panicking...

** "I'll be all right, Katniss," says Prim, clasping my face in her**** hands. "But you have to take care, too. You're so fast and**** brave. Maybe you can win."**** I can't win. Prim must know that in her heart. The competition**** will be far beyond my abilities. Kids from wealthier districts,**** where winning is a huge honor, who've been trained**** their whole lives for this. Boys who are two to three times my**** size. Girls who know twenty different ways to kill you with a**** knife. Oh, there'll be people like me, too. People to weed out**** before the real fun begins.**

**"Maybe," I say, because I can hardly tell my mother to carry**** on if I've already given up myself.**

RMWRPU: The name's Bacon. Cheese Bacon.

Katnisss: WHAT?

Cheese Bacon (?): Just kidding. Call me Wonderbread.

Katniss: HUH?

Wonderbread / Cheese Bacon (?): Never mind. My name's is Gerard.

Katniss: ...

** Besides, it isn't in my nature**** to go down without a fight, even when things seem insurmountable.**** "Then we'd be rich as Haymitch."**

**"I don't care if we're rich. I just want you to come home.**** You will try, won't you? Really, really try?" asks Prim.**

**"Really, really try. I swear it," I say. And I know, because of**** Prim, I'll have to.**** And then the Peacekeeper is at the door, signaling our time**** is up, and we're all hugging one another so hard it hurts and**** all I'm saying is "I love you. I love you both." And they're say****ing it back and then the Peacekeeper orders them out and the**** door closes. I bury my head in one of the velvet pillows as if**** this can block the whole thing out.**** Someone else enters the room, and when I look up, I'm surprised**** to see it's the baker, Peeta Mellark's father.**

Peeta: Oh. Dad. He visited you?

Haymitch: Look, Peeta, if you have nothing to say, don't say anything at all.

** I can't believe**** he's come to visit me. After all, I'll be trying to kill his son**** soon.**

Peeta: _Exactly_ why I'm surprised!

Haymitch: Peeta. Take the hint. Shut. Up.

** But we do know each other a bit, and he knows Prim**** even better.**

Peeta: Oh. Maybe that's why-

(Haymitch pulls Peeta into a headlock)

Emarra: Emm...I'll just continue while they wrestle...

** When she sells her goat cheeses at the Hob, she**** puts two of them aside for him and he gives her a generous**** amount of bread in return. We always wait to trade with him**** when his witch of a wife isn't around because he's so much**** nicer. I feel certain he would never have hit his son the way**** she did over the burned bread.**

Peeta (wheezing from the headlock): Sometimes, if I bad-talk you or Prim or your mother.

Haymitch (holding up his arms enacingly to show he's not finished): Do you want another-

(Peeta shuts up)

** But why has he come to see**** me?**** The baker sits awkwardly on the edge of one of the plush**** chairs. He's a big, broad-shouldered man with burn scars from**** years at the ovens. He must have just said goodbye to his son.**** He pulls a white paper package from his jacket pocket and**** holds it out to me. I open it and find cookies. These are a luxury**** we can never afford.**

Rhea (sympathetically): Here, I have a cookie.

Katniss: Ah, no thank you. I won, remember? I have enough cookies now!

Prim: I waaaaaaaaaaant it!

Rhea: Um, okay.

(Rhea awkwardly gives Prim the cookie)

Prim: What kind?

Rhea (very professional): It is made out of artificial mice intestines, fake jabberjay brain, organic mockingbird tongue, real ocean-feet fungi, fresh apple dear hooves, and a slice of chili. I have to say I'm proud of making it.

Everyone except Effie: EEEEEWWWWWW!

(Effie takes it and stuffs it into her mouth)

Everyone except Effie: EEEEEWWWWWW!

Effie (muffled by cookie concoction): Mmm...Tastes like chicken.

**"Thank you," I say. The baker's not a very talkative man in**** the best of times, and today he has no words at all. "I had**** some of your bread this morning. My friend Gale gave you a**** squirrel for it." He nods, as if remembering the squirrel. "Not**** your best trade," I say. He shrugs as if it couldn't possibly matter.**** Then I can't think of anything else, so we sit in silence until**** a Peacemaker summons him. He rises and coughs to clear his**** throat. **

**"I'll keep an eye on the little girl. Make sure she's eating."**** I feel some of the pressure in my chest lighten at his words.**** People deal with me, but they are genuinely fond of Prim.**

(Rue looks uncomfortably at her foot)

Emarra: What's the matter Rue-I mean Prim?

Rue: Actually, I take lessons from Angel...

Katniss (glaring): Who's that? You _know_ I don't like you talking to strangers.

Rue: Stop sounding like mom!

(Katniss glares at Rue)

Rue: Okay, okay! It's this girl who can control people's minds.

Katniss: She _WHAT?_

Rue: And she has wings...

Katniss: She can control people and she has-

(Katniss faints)

Emarra: Emm...Okay...

** Maybe there will be enough fondness to keep her alive.**** My next guest is also unexpected. Madge walks straight to**** me. She is not weepy or evasive, instead there's an urgency**** about her tone that surprises me. **

**"They let you wear one**** thing from your district in the arena. One thing to remind you**** of home. Will you wear this?" She holds out the circular gold**** pin that was on her dress earlier. I hadn't paid much attention**** to it before, but now I see it's a small bird in flight.**

**"Your pin?" I say. Wearing a token from my district is about**** the last thing on my mind.**

**"Here, I'll put it on your dress, all right?" Madge doesn't**** wait for an answer, she just leans in and fixes the bird to my**** dress. "Promise you'll wear it into the arena, Katniss?" she**** asks. "Promise?"**

**"Yes," I say. Cookies. A pin. I'm getting all kinds of gifts today.**** Madge gives me one more. A kiss on the cheek.**

Peeta: EWWWWWW!

(Gale and Katniss slap him at the exact same time)

Gale: Stop acting like a baby.

Katniss: It's not like you haven't kissed me before.

Rhea (popping in): Gee, the score comes up again, eh? Gale: 4 - Peeta: 1

Peeta: Where'd he get the extra point?

Rhea (sighs): Must I replay the whole thing?

(flash back)

_Haymitch: I found that rather scary._

_Peeta (laughing): YOU? You found that scary?_

_Haymitch (grimacing): This is coming from a boy who can't stand the fact that his "girlfriend" is being stolen away from a better man._

_(Peeta shuts up)_

(Peeta shuts up)

Rhea: Please continue, Emarra Foxx.

** Then she's** **gone and I'm left thinking that maybe Madge really has been**** my friend all along.**** Finally, Gale is here and maybe there is nothing romantic**** between us, but when he opens his arms I don't hesitate to go**** into them.**

(Rhea pops in)

Rhea: Hello, the-

Peeta (grumbling): Yes, yes, I know. He gets another point.

Rhea: No. I was just alerting you that Cato, Glimmer, Clove, and Dean might be dropping in.

Rue: WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?

Rhea: But yes, you are right. The score is... Gale: 5 - Peeta: 1

** His body is familiar to me — the way it moves, the**** smell of wood smoke, even the sound of his heart beating I**** know from quiet moments on a hunt — but this is the first**** time I really feel it, lean and hard-muscled against my own.**

Gale: Unfortunately...

**"Listen," he says. "Getting a knife should be pretty easy, but**** you've got to get your hands on a bow. That's your best**** chance."**

**"They don't always have bows," I say, thinking of the year**** there were only horrible spiked maces that the tributes had to**** bludgeon one another to death with.**

Effie: OH! That year was dreadfully great!

Prim: Ya mean "greatly dreadful".

Effie: Hmph.

** "Then make one," says Gale. "Even a weak bow is better**** than no bow at all."**** I have tried copying my father's bows with poor results. It's**** not that easy. Even he had to scrap his own work sometimes.**

**"I don't even know if there'll be wood," I say. Another year,**** they tossed everybody into a landscape of nothing but boulders**** and sand and scruffy bushes. I particularly hated that year.**** Many contestants were bitten by venomous snakes or went**** insane from thirst.**

Effie: I didn't like that year. Since Simone Sezz died and I betted on him...I gave up tutu-flossing time just to bet on him...

Everybody: TUTU-FLOSSING?

Effie: What? Everybody does it!

**"There's almost always some wood," Gale says. "Since that**** year half of them died of cold. Not much entertainment in**** that."**** It's true. We spent one Hunger Games watching the players**** freeze to death at night. You could hardly see them because**** they were just huddled in balls and had no wood for fires or**** torches or anything. It was considered very anti-climactic in**** the Capitol, all those quiet, bloodless deaths.**

Effie: Indeed...Indeed...Very boring...They needed that little spark.

Emarra: I am _trying_ to read. Please _shut_ up.

** Since then,**** there's usually been wood to make fires.**** "Yes, there's usually some," I say.**

**"Katniss, it's just hunting. You're the best hunter I know,"**** says Gale.**** "It's not just hunting. They're armed. They think," I say. ****"So do you. And you've had more practice. Real practice,"**** he says. "You know how to kill."**

**"Not people," I say.**

Prim: But what about that one where you killed my murderer?

Katniss: That's...a different story...

**"How different can it be, really?" says Gale grimly.**

Peeta: What an awful thing to say, Gale!

(Katniss looks down sadly and Peeta comforts her)

Rhea: Gale: 4 - Peeta: 2

(Peeta snickers evilly)

** The awful thing is that if I can forget they're people, it will**** be no different at all.**** The Peacekeepers are back too soon and Gale asks for more**** time, but they're taking him away and I start to panic. "Don't**** let them starve!" I cry out, clinging to his hand.**

**"I won't! You know I won't! Katniss, remember I —" he**** says, and they yank us apart and slam the door and I'll never**** know what it was he wanted me to remember.**

Gale: I just wanted to let you know I loved you. I always would. I always will.

(Gale kisses Katniss)

** It's a short ride from the Justice Building to the train station.**** I've never been in a car before. Rarely even ridden in wagons.**** In the Seam, we travel on foot.**** I've been right not to cry. The station is swarming with reporters**** with their insectlike cameras trained directly on my**** face. But I've had a lot of practice at wiping my face clean of**** emotions and I do this now. I catch a glimpse of myself on the**** television screen on the wall that's airing my arrival live and**** feel gratified that I appear almost bored.**** Peeta Mellark, on the other hand, has obviously been crying**** and interestingly enough does not seem to be trying to cover**** it up.**

Peeta: I just decided to play it clean. Be innocent. Be true to myself. I didn't want to lose my identity.

** I immediately wonder if this will be his strategy in the**** Games. To appear weak and frightened, to reassure the other**** tributes that he is no competition at all, and then come out**** fighting. This worked very well for a girl, Johanna Mason, from**** District 7 a few years back. She seemed like such a sniveling,**** cowardly fool that no one bothered about her until there were**** only a handful of contestants left. It turned out she could kill**** viciously. Pretty clever, the way she played it. But this seems**** an odd strategy for Peeta Mellark because he's a baker's son. ****All those years of having enough to eat and hauling bread**** trays around have made him broad-shouldered and strong. It**** will take an awful lot of weeping to convince anyone to overlook**** him.**

**We have to stand for a few minutes in the doorway of the**** train while the cameras gobble up our images, then we're allowed**** inside and the doors close mercifully behind us. The**** train begins to move at once.**** The speed initially takes my breath away. Of course, I've**** never been on a train, as travel between the districts is forbidden**** except for officially sanctioned duties. For us, that's**** mainly transporting coal. But this is no ordinary coal train. It's**** one of the high-speed Capitol models that average 250 miles**** per hour.**

Prim: My cousin Jakobe used to work on those. On special occasions, they would sneak in and party on it. Lots of food and stuff in the cabinets. He got caught on his birthday.

Rue: Geez, what happened?

Prim: Well, he got executed and his head got stuffed.

(Everybody becomes silent)

** Our journey to the Capitol will take less than a day.**** In school, they tell us the Capitol was built in a place once**** called the Rockies. District 12 was in a region known is Appalachia.**** Even hundreds of years ago, they mined coal here.**** Which is why our miners have to dig so deep.**** Somehow it all comes back to coal at school. Besides basic**** reading and math most of our instruction is coal-related. Except**** for the weekly lecture on the history of Panem. It's mostly**** a lot of blather about what we owe the Capitol. I know there**** must be more than they're telling us, an actual account of**** what happened during the rebellion. But I don't spend much**** time thinking about it. Whatever the truth is, I don't see how it**** will help me get food on the table.**

**The tribute train is fancier than even the room in the Justice**** Building. We are each given our own chambers that have**** a bedroom, a dressing area, and a private bathroom with hot ****and cold running water.**

Gale: SWEET MAMA!

(Everybody looks at Gale)

Gale: S-sorry. I don't even know what hot water feels like, much less _running _hot water.

** We don't have hot water at home, unless**** we boil it.**** There are drawers filled with fine clothes, and Effie Trinket**** tells me to do anything I want, wear anything I want, everything**** is at my disposal. Just be ready for supper in an hour. I**** peel off my mother's blue dress and take a hot shower. I've**** never had a shower before. It's like being in a summer rain,**** only warmer.**

Effie: I've been in a summer rain shower before!

Haymitch: Cool, I haven't. What app is it?

Effie: No, _outside_ in a summer rain shower. I was naked and doing the Irish Jig because I felt good.

** I dress in a dark green shirt and pants.**** At the last minute, I remember Madge's little gold pin. For**** the first time, I get a good look at it. It's as if someone fashioned**** a small golden bird and then attached a ring around**** it. The bird is connected to the ring only by its wing tips. I**** suddenly recognize it. A mockingjay.**** They're funny birds and something of a slap in the face to**** the Capitol. During the rebellion, the Capitol bred a series of**** genetically altered animals as weapons. The common term for**** them was muttations, or sometimes mutts for short. One was a**** special bird called a jabberjay that had the ability to memorize**** and repeat whole human conversations. They were homing**** birds, exclusively male, that were released into regions where**** the Capitol's enemies were known to be hiding. After the birds**** gathered words, they'd fly back to centers to be recorded. It**** took people awhile to realize what was going on in the dis****tricts, how private conversations were being transmitted.**** Then, of course, the rebels fed the Capitol endless lies, and the**** joke was on it. So the centers were shut down and the birds**** were abandoned to die off in the wild.**** Only they didn't die off. Instead, the jabberjays mated with**** female mockingbirds creating a whole new species that could**** replicate both bird whistles and human melodies.**

Gale: They're beautiful...

Peeta: Just like Katniss.

Rhea: Gale: 4 - Peeta: 3

** They had**** lost the ability to enunciate words but could still mimic a**** range of human vocal sounds, from a child's high-pitched**** warble to a man's deep tones. And they could re-create songs.**** Not just a few notes, but whole songs with multiple verses, if**** you had the patience to sing them and if they liked your voice.**** My father was particularly fond of mockingjays. When we**** went hunting, he would whistle or sing complicated songs to**** them and, after a polite pause, they'd always sing back. Not**** everyone is treated with such respect. But whenever my father**** sang, all the birds in the area would fall silent and listen.**** His voice was that beautiful, high and clear and so filled with**** life it made you want to laugh and cry at the same time. I could**** never bring myself to continue the practice after he was gone.**** Still, there's something comforting about the little bird. It's**** like having a piece of my father with me, protecting me.**

Effie (serious): I, too, have a memory of my father with me.

Katniss (softly): Oh, what is it?

Effie: His Afro wig.

(All is quiet)

** I fasten**** the pin onto my shirt, and with the dark green fabric as a**** background, I can almost imagine the mockingjay flying**** through the trees.**** Effie Trinket comes to collect me for supper. I follow her**** through the narrow, rocking corridor into a dining room with**** polished paneled walls. There's a table where all the dishes****are highly breakable. Peeta Mellark sits waiting for us, the**** chair next to him empty.**

**"Where's Haymitch?" asks Effie Trinket brightly.**

**"Last time I saw him, he said he was going to take a nap,"**** says Peeta.**

**"Well, it's been an exhausting day," says Effie Trinket. I**** think she's relieved by Haymitch's absence, and who can**** blame her?**** The supper comes in courses. A thick carrot soup, green**** salad, lamb chops and mashed potatoes, cheese and fruit, a**** chocolate cake. Throughout the meal, Effie Trinket keeps reminding**** us to save space because there's more to come. But**** I'm stuffing myself because I've never had food like this, so**** good and so much, and because probably the best thing I can**** do between now and the Games is put on a few pounds.**

**"At least, you two have decent manners," says Effie as we're**** finishing the main course. "The pair last year ate everything**** with their hands like a couple of savages. It completely upset**** my digestion."**** The pair last year were two kids from the Seam who'd never,**** not one day of their lives, had enough to eat.**

Prim: Oh yes, last year, ours too. Two 12 year olds. Um, Jane and Kale I believe. Twins, I believe. They were new residents. Neighbors of ours. They died together. Burned. On a stick.

Effie: Oh. How lovely!

** And when**** they did have food, table manners were surely the last thing**** on their minds. Peeta's a baker's son. My mother taught Prim**** and I to eat properly, so yes, I can handle a fork and knife. But**** I hate Effie Trinket's comment so much I make a point of eating**** the rest of my meal with my fingers. Then I wipe my hands**** on the tablecloth. This makes her purse her lips tightly together.**

Effie: YOU DID THAT ON _PURPOSE_?

(Everybody snickers)

Effie: Why, you! I will sue you!

**Now that the meal's over, I'm fighting to keep the food**** down. I can see Peeta's looking a little green, too. Neither of**** our stomachs is used to such rich fare. But if I can hold down**** Greasy Sae's concoction of mice meat, pig entrails, and tree**** bark — a winter specialty — I'm determined to hang on to**** this.**

Peeta: I'm not going to say it, I'm not going to say it, I'm not going to say it-

Katniss: Say what?

Peeta: EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

** We go to another compartment to watch the recap of the**** reapings across Panem. They try to stagger them throughout**** the day so a person could conceivably watch the whole thing**** live, but only people in the Capitol could really do that, since**** none of them have to attend reapings themselves.**** One by one, we see the other reapings, the names called,**** (the volunteers stepping forward or, more often, not. We examine**** the faces of the kids who will be our competition. A few**** stand out in my mind. A monstrous boy who lunges forward**** to volunteer from District 2.**

Cato: That must be me.

Everybody: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!

** A fox-faced girl with sleek red**** hair from District 5.**

Emarra: Me.

** A boy with a crippled foot from District**** 10.**

Glimmer: Dean's best friend.

Everybody: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!

** And most hauntingly, a twelve-year-old girl from District**** 11.**

Prim: Oh...Me...

** She has dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that,**** she's very like Prim in size and demeanor. Only when she**** mounts the stage and they ask for volunteers, all you can hear**** is the wind whistling through the decrepit buildings around**** her. There's no one willing to take her place.**** Last of all, they show District 12. Prim being called, me**** running forward to volunteer. You can't miss the desperation**** in my voice as I shove Prim behind me, as if I'm afraid no one**** will hear and they'll take Prim away. But, of course, they do**** hear. I see Gale pulling her off me and watch myself mount the**** stage. The commentators are not sure what to say about the**** crowd's refusal to applaud. The silent salute. One says that**** District 12 has always been a bit backward but that local customs**** can be charming. As if on cue, Haymitch falls off the**** stage, and they groan comically.**

Haymitch (sarcastic): Oh, ha ha ha.

** Peeta's name is drawn, and he**** quietly takes his place. We shake hands. They cut to the anthem**** again, and the pro-gram ends.**** Effie Trinket is disgruntled about the state her wig was in.**** "Your mentor has a lot to learn about presentation. A lot about**** televised behavior."**** Peeta unexpectedly laughs. **

**"He was drunk," says Peeta.**** "He's drunk every year."**

Haymitch: Well, ex-_cuse_ me!

**"Every day," I add.**

Haymitch: I hate you both. Katniss. Peeta.

** I can't help smirking a little. Effie Trinket**** makes it sound like Haymitch just has somewhat rough manners**** that could be corrected with a few tips from her.**

Effie: Well, it's true!

(Rhea pulls out her wand and waves it)

Rhea (muttering): Κοτόπουλο, θα πρέπει να

(Effie turns into a chicken!)

**"Yes," hisses Effie Trinket. "How odd you two find it amusing.**** You know your mentor is your lifeline to the world in**** these Games. The one who advises you, lines up your sponsors,**** and dictates the presentation of any gifts. Haymitch can**** well be the difference between your life and your death!"**** Just then, Haymitch staggers into the compartment. **

**"I miss**** supper?" he says in a slurred voice. Then he vomits all over**** the expensive carpet and falls in the mess.**

**"So laugh away!" says Effie Trinket. She hops in her pointy**** shoes around the pool of vomit and flees the room.

* * *

**

Effie: BUH-KAWK! BUH-KAWK!

Cato: Oh dear, it seems to be that Effie has turned into a chicken.

Rhea: Darn right. She was pissing me off.

Glimmer: Oh how right. She's so annoying.

Rue and Prim: I'm supposing we will be taking our leave, as Glimmer and Cato are here?

RMWRPU / Cheese Bacon / Wonderbread / Gerard / Moose / Whatever the heck his name is: Yup. I will be taking Haymitch back too.

Haymitch: NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Rhea: Oh, hey, Moose.

Katniss: Isn't his name Gerard?

Rue: Cheese Bacon, remember?

Gale: I say that he's the Random Man Who Randomly Popped Up.

RMWRPU / Cheese Bacon / Wonderbread / Gerard / Moose / Whatever the heck his name is: Just call me Wonderbread...

Emarra: Emm...Okays then...

Effie: NAAAAAAAAP TIME!

* * *

**Once again, I'm sorry about the delay. It's finally summer vacation for me so I will be updating more! . That is, until June 21st...I'll be going to China. I'll try to update over there. July 21st I come back though so, no worries!**

**Please review!  
**


	5. Chapter 4: Oh, A Narcissist?

**Another big, big, big chapter~! Haha, imitating Effie.**

**Characters:**

Katniss Everdeen  
Gale Hawthorne  
Peeta Mellark  
Effie Trinket  
Emarra Foxx  
Violet Everdeen  
Prim and Rue (changed back)  
Flavius  
Octavia  
Venia  
Rhea (plus her long name)  
And the Extra-Special other One~!

**I don't like the beginning of making these chapters because I have to copy and paste from either the PDF file or the web preview. The PDF has really weird skipping lines (e.g.**

**I pause and look at him. It's never occurred to me that he actually looked like a  
turtle. I mean, Peeta Mellark's a baker son, he shouldn't look like a turtle. Much  
less a _purple_ turtle. Was I hallucinating? No, it couldn't be. I mean, I swear I  
saw Gale ogl-I mean goggling him. Or looking at him with big eyes. I forgot what  
that was called. Googly-eyeing him?)**

**No that's not in the story. That was something I made up off the top of my head. Teehee. **

**Then the web preview has huge letters so it's a little weird. So I either waster my time making the size smaller, or trying to delete unnecessary skips. Sigh.**

**My friend, Annika, is helping me out in this chapter. Please excuse us if gone characters are back. I'm trying to fix that. It is a little confusing.  
**

**I'm going to do it the new way (i.e. "What did you say?" Katniss exclaimed) rather than the old way (i.e. Katniss [exclaiming]: What did you say?)**

**ENJOY. P.S. There's a new charrie. ;) Another dead dude...No, not Marvel-Dean or Kabysmo or Clove.**

**Now said, there are weird and some canon pairings in this story: GaleXKatniss (canon, strong), CloveXCato (uncanon, low), CatoXGlimmer (canon, strong), GaleXMadge (canon? low), HaymitchXEffie (uncanon, low), CinnamonXVivi (UNCANON, HIGH), RheaXMoose (OC pairing, low), VioletXGerard (canon, low).**

**

* * *

**

"YEEK!" Effie squealed as a mysterious cloaked figure dropped from the sky.

"Yuughh..." the shadow moaned.

"Oh, geez, has Rhea lost her mind? We were supposed to meet at mid-way Earth..." Gerard mumbled.

"Wait-where?" Gale asked..

"Uhh...I didn't say anything!" Cheese Bacon said, immediately regretting his previous comment.

"Hmm...Hey, Moose, bring Cato and Glimmer back, will ya?" a way-too familiar voice said.

"Bring them back yourself!" RMWRPU snarled. "Where have you been all this time anyway, Rhea?"

"Hangin' out with Sam and Will."

"Riiiiiiight..."

"Who's reading this time?" Emarra asked.

"Cinna."

"WAIT WHO?" an extremely random voice screamed.

"Who was that?" Peeta asked.

"Dunno, okay, here you go, Cinna." A thick book floated down and landed with a thud on top of the facade.

**R-i-i-i-p! I grit my teeth as Venia, a woman with aqua hair and gold tattoos above her eyebrows, yanks a strip of Fabric from my leg tearing out the hair beneath it. "Sorry!" she pipes in her silly Capitol accent. "You're just so hairy!"**

"You are?" Gale asked curiously.

"Shut up," Katniss replied.

**Why do these people speak in such a high pitch? Why do their jaws barely open when they talk? Why do the ends of their sentences go up as if they're asking a question? Odd vowels, clipped words, and always a hiss on the letter s . . . no wonder it's impossible not to mimic them.**

"Mimic _us_?_ Me_?" Effie sqealed.

"Mimic _us_?_ Me_?" squealed Peeta back. "Yes, you."

**Venia makes what's supposed to be a sympathetic face. "Good news, though. This is the last one. Ready?" I get a grip on the edges of the table I'm seated on and nod. The final swathe of my leg hair is uprooted in a painful jerk.**

**I've been in the Remake Center for more than three hours and I still haven't met my stylist. Apparently he has no interest in seeing me until Venia and the other members of my prep team have addressed some obvious problems. This has included scrubbing down my body with a gritty loam that has removed not only dirt but at least three layers of skin, turning my nails into uniform shapes, and primarily, ridding my body of hair.**

"You know that _is_ essential for looking as beeeee-YU-tiful as me, deary," Effie said, showing off her chubby shoulders.

"Um, right, Effie, right."

** My legs, arms, torso, under arms, and parts of my eyebrows have been stripped of the Muff, leaving me like a plucked bird, ready for roasting. I don't like it. My skin feels sore and tingling and intensely vulnerable. But I have kept my side of the bargain with Haymitch, and no objection has crossed my lips.**

**"You're doing very well," says some guy named Flavius. He gives his orange corkscrew locks a shake and applies a fresh coat of purple lipstick to his mouth. "If there's one thing we can't stand, it's a whiner. Grease her down!"**

**Venia and Octavia, a plump woman whose entire body has been dyed a pale shade of pea green, rub me down with a lotion that first stings but then soothes my raw skin.**

"I _think_ that's elephant pee," Effie mused.

"OHMYGOD WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Katniss screamed.

"ELEPHANT PEE? I GOT BATHED IN _ELEPHANT PEE?_" Peeta screamed along.

"I said I think!" Effie said.

"The only problem with that statement is that you _can't_ think, Effie," Gale said.

"There sure are a lot of italicizing, isn't there?" Effie said cheerfully and completely randomly.

** Then they pull me from the table, removing the thin robe I've been allowed to wear off and on. I stand there, completely naked, as the three circle me, wielding tweezers to remove any last bits of hair. I know I should be embarrassed, but they're so unlike people that I'm no more self-conscious than if a trio of oddly colored birds were pecking around my feet.**

**The three step back and admire their work. "Excellent! You almost look like a human being now!" says Flavius, and they all laugh.**

"That is sooo mean!" said Rue.

"Why are YOU here? I thought RMWRPU was taking your place while you took a bubble bath!" said Gale and Peeta at the same time.

**I force my lips up into a smile to show how grateful I am. "Thank you," I say sweetly. "We don't have much cause to look nice in District Twelve."**

**This wins them over completely. "Of course, you don't, you poor darling!" says Octavia clasping her hands together in distress for me.**

**"But don't worry," says Venia. "By the time Cinna is through with you, you're going to be absolutely gorgeous!"**

"Totally!" Cinna said, as he literally appeared from nowhere in particular.

**"We promise! You know, now that we've gotten rid of all the hair and filth, you're not horrible at all!" says Flavius encouragingly. "Let's call Cinna!"**

**They dart out of the room. It's hard to hate my prep team. They're such total idiots. And yet, in an odd way, I know they're sincerely trying to help me.**

**I look at the cold white walls and floor and resist the impulse to retrieve my robe. But this Cinna, my stylist, will surely make me remove it at once. Instead my hands go to my hairdo, the one area of my body my prep team had been told to leave alone. My fingers stroke the silky braids my mother so carefully arranged. My mother. I left her blue dress and shoes on the floor of my train car, never thinking about retrieving them, of trying to hold on to a piece of her, of home. Now I wish I had.**

Katniss sighed as she had that feeling of nostalgia again. She wished she could go home and not get burned or torched for doing it.**  
**

**The door opens and a young man who must be Cinna enters. I'm taken aback by how normal he looks. Most of the stylists they interview on television are so dyed, stenciled, and surgically altered they're grotesque. But Cinna's close-cropped hair appears to be its natural shade of brown. He's in a simple black shirt and pants. The only concession to self-alteration seems to be metallic gold eyeliner that has been applied with a light hand. It brings out the flecks of gold in his green eyes. And, despite my disgust with the Capitol and their hideous fashions, I can't help thinking how attractive it looks.**

"No kidding!" said Cinna.

"I thought you like ME!" Peeta sobbed.

"No Peeta, remember? At the end of the book I told you it was all just a show for the audience."

"Don't spoil the ending!" Effie shrieked.

**"Hello, Katniss. I'm Cinna, your stylist," he says in a quiet voice somewhat lacking in the Capitol's affectations.**

**"Hello," I venture cautiously.**

**"Just give me a moment, all right?" he asks. He walks around my naked body, not touching me, but taking in every inch of it with his eyes. I resist the impulse to cross my arms over my chest. "Who did your hair?"**

**"My mother," I say.**

**"It's beautiful. Classic really. And in almost perfect balance with your profile. She has very clever fingers," he says.**

Suddenly, Mrs. Everdeen came in.

"Oh. Hi, Mom," Katniss said. "I thought you were working today."

"I took the day off!"

"I believe you are Mrs. Everdeen. Or should I say- Violet." Rhea said.

"Yeah, but my friends- oh wait, I have none- call me... Vi-Vi!" she said.

"Umm..." Peeta said.

"Oh, and thank you for the compliment, Cinnamon!"

Cinna flipped his hair flamboyantly and gave a toothy grin. "Everything for my dear Vivvy." **(A/N Shrub: I know, I know, Cinna doesn't act like this, but I gotta have some drama in my story~! No offense to Cinna lovers. Or Mrs. Everdeen lovers?)**

"Ohh, Cinnamon..." The two grasped each others' hands and nudged each other affectionately with their nose.

"Oh gross, Mom, I never thought-"

"I object."

All eyes turned to who said that. Moose, Gerard, Cheese Bacon, Wonderbread, RMWRPU, Whoever...He pointed defiantly at the embracing "Cinnamon" and "Vivi" couple.

"Dear, I never thought you would move on so fast," Wonderbread said. "My blooming Violet, failing to blend in with the rest of the field-You told me you loved me. Yet here you are, nudging another man's nose-and that man being my own niece."

"NIECE!"

"I-I mean nephew!" RMWRPU protested, blushing from his mistake. "Ahem...My own nephew...Pure blood of mine, perhaps decades younger than you. Who sees you nothing more than a toy, who will throw you away when he sees you wilted. I, Gerardlo Juhity Everdeen, object to you nuzzling your nose with that...that beast!"

"He's my brother, Gerard."

Wonderbread decided to just go with Rhea back to the gates.

**I had expected someone flamboyant, someone older trying desperately to look young, someone who viewed me as a piece of meat to be prepared for a platter. Cinna has met none of these expectations.**

Cinna looked disgusted. "Of course not! I look naturally young! Look at this flawless, untainted skin, the beautiful, unwrinkled face, the perfect, blushing cheeks, the graceful muscles that rest on my strong bones. No old man with liposuction and plastic surgery could look as perfect as me, my dear Katniss."

"I take it back. I take it all back," Katniss muttered.

**"You're new, aren't you? I don't think I've seen you before," I say. Most of the stylists are familiar, constants in the ever-changing pool of tributes. Some have been around my whole life.**

**"Yes, this is my first year in the Games," says Cinna.**

**"So they gave you District Twelve," I say. Newcomers generally end up with us, the least desirable district.**

**"I asked for District Twelve," he says without further explanation. "Why don't you put on your robe and we'll have a chat."**

"Why _did_ you choose District 12?" asked Gale.

"Because I could see my darling Vivi, and my cute, little niece~!" Cinna giggled.

"Urr..."

**Pulling on my robe, I follow him through a door into a sitting room. Two red couches face off over a low table. Three walls are blank, the fourth is entirely glass, providing a window to the city. I can see by the light that it must be around noon, although the sunny sky has turned overcast. Cinna invites me to sit on one of the couches and takes his place across from me. He presses a button on the side of the table. The top splits and from below rises a second tabletop that holds our lunch. Chicken and chunks of oranges cooked in a creamy sauce laid on a bed of pearly white grain, tiny green peas and onions, rolls shaped like flowers, and for dessert, a pudding the color of honey.**

"The party beer there is supreme!" Haymitch exclaimed.

"I liked the sauteed lime-honey sauce drizzled lightly over medium rare steak mixed with rice and chopped vegetables with a bit of parsley sprinkled over it." Everyone whipped their heads around to see who was talking. It was Rhea holding Haymitch by the scruff. "What?" she said. "I've been to the Capitol. I know that the food is exquisitely fine."

**I try to imagine assembling this meal myself back home. Chickens are too expensive, but I could make do with a wild turkey. I'd need to shoot a second turkey to trade for an orange. Goat's milk would have to substitute for cream. We can grow peas in the garden. I'd have to get wild onions from the woods. I don't recognize the grain, our own tessera ration cooks down to an unattractive brown mush. Fancy rolls would mean another trade with the baker, perhaps for two or three squirrels. As for the pudding, I can't even guess what's in it. Days of hunting and gathering for this one meal and even then it would be a poor substitution for the Capitol version.**

**What must it be like, I wonder, to live in a world where food appears at the press of a button? How would I spend the hours I now commit to combing the woods for sustenance if it were so easy to come by? What do they do all day, these people in the Capitol, besides decorating their bodies and waiting around for a new shipment of tributes to roll in and die for their entertainment?**

"Oh, we attend fancy parties for one thing," said Venia.

"What? You aren't supposed to be in this chapter!" Peeta exclaimed.

"Oh, we can't spend _all_ our time decorating ourselves, you know. You should stop by sometime to see my dog Smoochie," Octavia piped up.

"Uh, no thank you," said Rue wisely.

"So we'll just stay here and, 'hang out'," decided Flavius. Rhea guessed he was trying to act and look and sound cool by the look or sound of him.

**I look up and find Cinna's eyes trained on mine. "How despicable we must seem to you," he says.**

**Has he seen this in my face or somehow read my thoughts? He's right, though. The whole rotten lot of them is despicable.**

**"No matter," says Cinna. "So, Katniss, about your costume for the opening ceremonies. My partner, Portia, is the stylist for your fellow tribute, Peeta. And our current thought is to dress you in complementary costumes," says Cinna. "As you know, it's customary to reflect the flavor of the district."**

"Ahh...I sound so beautifully formally lovely..." Cinna said narcistically, praising himself.

"Of course you do, Cinnamon," Mrs. Everdeen coos lovingly.

"Are you sure they're just siblings?" Emarra whispered to Gerard.

**For the opening ceremonies, you're supposed to wear something that suggests your district's principal industry. District 11, agriculture. District 4, fishing. District 3, factories. This means that coming from District 12, Peeta and I will be in some kind of coal miner's getup. Since the baggy miner's jumpsuits are not particularly becoming, our tributes usually end up in skimpy outfits and hats with headlamps. One year, our tributes were stark naked and covered in black powder to represent coal dust.**

"Oh, how I disliked that year!" Venia squeaked shrilly.

"Oh, yes, those two didn't have the right charm for it!" Octavia agreed with a little shriek.

"Yo, I agree, man. They, like, totally did _not_ look cool," Flavius said, with a little rap in his voice.

"You sound like Glimmer when she's talking about make-up," Rhea said, disgusted.

"Make-up is gangstah?" Flavius exclaimed. "And all these years..."

** It's always dreadful and does nothing to win favor with the crowd. I prepare myself for the worst.**

**"So, I'll be in a coal miner outfit?" I ask, hoping it won't be indecent.**

**"Not exactly. You see, Portia and I think that coal miner thing's very overdone. No one will remember you in that. And we both see it as our job to make the District Twelve tributes unforgettable," says Cinna.**

**I'll be naked for sure, I think.**

Peeta looks curiously at Katniss. "Don't. Say. A. Word." Katniss said through gritted teeth.

**"So rather than focus on the coal mining itself, we're going to focus on the coal," says Cinna. Naked and covered in black dust, I think. "And what do we do with coal? We burn it," says Cinna.**

**"You're not afraid of fire, are you, Katniss?" He sees my expression and grins.**

**A few hours later, I am dressed in what will either be the most sensational or the deadliest costume in the opening ceremonies. I'm in a simple black unitard that covers me from ankle to neck.**

"Oh, that mustah been grody, I nevah liked unitards, man," Flavius rapped.

"Shut up, Flavius, and please, don't attempt being cool. It makes you sound like a dork."

** Shiny leather boots lace up to my knees. But it's the fluttering cape made of streams of orange, yellow, and red and the matching headpiece that define this costume. Cinna plans to light them on fire just before our chariot rolls into the streets.**

**"It's not real flame, of course, just a little synthetic fire Portia and I came up with. You'll be perfectly safe," he says. But I'm not convinced I won't be perfectly barbecued by the time we reach the city's center.**

"You're such a scaredy-cat!" Rue giggled. "We had bees and humming birds surround us as sap and flowers decorated our hair and body."

"Oh. My. Gosh," Cinna said. "That must've looked great. I'll have to congratulate Jason later."

"Oh yes, it was great," Rue said with a malevolent smile. "But you won't believe how many bruises we gave dear Jason."

**My face is relatively clear of makeup, just a bit of highlighting here and there. My hair has been brushed out and then braided down my back in my usual style. "I want the audience to recognize you when you're in the arena," says Cinna dreamily. "Katniss, the girl who was on fire."**

**It crosses my mind that Cinna's calm and normal demeanor masks a complete madman.**

"Dear Cinnamon is _not_ mad! I expect you too apologize this instant!" Violet shrieks. Then she started to run in circles as she screamed "Cinna-Cinnamon!" over and over.

"I apologize," said Katniss sarcastically. "I'm so very sorry."

"Thank you, dear," Violet replied to Katniss, and then she continued to run around in circles screaming "Cinna-Cinnamon!" wildly until she lost her voice.

"Okay, now that Viv-Vi here is finished with her love-song to me, I will now... continue to red!" Cinna said excitedly.

"To _what_?" Cheese Bacon asked.

"To red. Now let me start." Cinna cleared his throat. "Ahem, ahem." Then he toned his voice. "Do ray mi fa so la ti do!" Then he took a deep breath and exhaled it out. Then again. And again. And again. And again. And again...

"Uh, Cinna?" Gale said. "It's been an hour. Are you ready to start reading again?" Gale asked.

"Uh, one sec." Cinna cleared his throat. "Here goes something, or nothing."

**Despite this morning's revelation about Peeta's character, I'm actually relieved when he shows up, dressed in an identical costume. He should kno****w about fire, being a baker's son and all. His stylist, Portia, and her team accompany him in, and everyone is absolutely giddy with excitement over what a splash we'll make. Except Cinna. He just seems a bit weary as he accepts congratulations.**

"I can only _really_ love myself right here. Here, I can be as special and awesome as I want." Cinna and Violet sigh dreamily in unison.

**We're whisked down to the bottom level of the Remake Center, which is essentially a gigantic stable. The opening ceremonies are about to start. Pairs of tributes are being loaded into chariots pulled by teams of four horses. Ours are coal black. The animals are so well trained, no one even needs to guide their reins. Cinna and Portia direct us into the chariot and carefully arrange our body positions, the drape of our capes, before moving off to consult with each other.**

**"What do you think?" I whisper to Peeta. "About the fire?"**

**"I'll rip off your cape if you'll rip off mine," he says through gritted teeth.**

**"Deal," I say. Maybe, if we can get them off soon enough, we'll avoid the worst burns. It's bad though. They'll throw us into the arena no matter what condition we're in. "I know we promised Haymitch we'd do exactly what they said, but I don't think he considered this angle."**

**"Where is Haymitch, anyway? Isn't he supposed to protect us from this sort of thing?" says Peeta.**

**"With all that alcohol in him, it's probably not advisable to have him around an open flame," I say.**

"You are sooooooo funny!" Effie said.

"Who you callin' drunk?" Haymitch asked, genuinely curiously, and not a bit sarcastic.

Peeta handed him a beer, and he quieted down.

**And suddenly we're both laughing. I guess we're both so nervous about the Games and more pressingly, petrified of being turned into human torches, we're not acting sensibly.**

"Not that _you_ ever act sensibly," Gale muttered at Peeta.

"What did you say?" Peeta asked evilly.

"Oh nothing, just that your butt might have another crack today," Gale threatened.

"You little-"

"Stop acting like preschoolers' with advanced vocabulary and let's get on with the story," Emarra said.

**The opening music begins. It's easy to hear, blasted around the Capitol. Massive doors slide open revealing the crowd-lined streets. The ride lasts about twenty minutes and ends up at the City Circle, where they will welcome us, play the anthem, and escort us into the Training Center, which will be our home/prison until the Games begin.**

**The tributes from District 1 ride out in a chariot pulled by snow-white horses. They look so beautiful, spray-painted silver, in tasteful tunics glittering with jewels. District 1 makes luxury items for the Capitol. You can hear the roar of the crowd. They are always favorites.**

"Not...always," Venia said considerably lower than her usual tone. "Oh, they had a sub once, and those Tributes were made into...sofas."

Octavia gulped. "Oh yes, I remembered that year...dreadful, absolutely dreadful."

"Oh, that weren't cool at all, man," Flavius agreed. "Right, homie Cinna?"

Cinna didn't pay attention. He was busying nuzzling Violet's nose.

**District 2 gets into position to follow them. In no time at all, we are approaching the door and I can see that between the overcast sky and evening hour the light is turning gray. The tributes from District 11 are just rolling out when Cinna appears with a lighted torch. "Here we go then," he says, and before we can react he sets our capes on fire. I gasp, waiting for the heat, but there is only a faint tickling sensation. Cinna climbs up before us and ignites our headdresses. He lets out a sign of relief. "It works." Then he gently tucks a hand under my chin. "Remember, heads high. Smiles. They're going to love you!"**

"And I was about to add 'and me!' but I decided that I might lose my darling niece's love, wouldn't I?" Cinna said with a mischievous smile playing at his lips.

"Well, all I can say now is, you've totally lost my respect," Katniss said.

**Cinna jumps off the chariot and has one last idea. He shouts something up at us, but the music drowns him out. He shouts again and gestures.**

**"What's he saying?" I ask Peeta. For the first time, I look at him and realize that ablaze with the fake flames, he is dazzling. And I must be, too.**

**"I think he said for us to hold hands," says Peeta. He grabs my right hand in his left, and we look to Cinna for confirmation. He nods and gives a thumbs-up, and that's the last thing I see before we enter the city.**

**The crowd's initial alarm at our appearance quickly changes to cheers and shouts of "District Twelve!" Every head is turned our way, pulling the focus from the three chariots ahead of us. At first, I'm frozen, but then I catch sight of us on a large television screen and am floored by how breathtaking we look. In the deepening twilight, the firelight illuminates our faces. We seem to be leaving a trail of fire off the flowing capes. Cinna was right about the minimal makeup, we both look more attractive but utterly recognizable.**

**Remember, heads high. Smiles. They're going to love you! I hear Cinna's voice in my head. I lift my chin a bit higher, put on my most winning smile, and wave with my free hand.**

"Personally," Cinna commented with a sneer, "it wasn't that winning at all. You looked uncomfortable and nervous, sweating a lot, and it looked ever so fake, but...I can't expect more from a tom-boy, can I?"

"Everybody's a critic these days," Prim said, laying a hand on Katniss's shoulder.

** I'm glad now I have Peeta to clutch for balance, he is so steady, solid as a rock. As I gain confidence, I actually blow a few kisses to the crowd. The people of the Capitol are going nuts, showering us with flowers, shouting our names, our first names, which they have bothered to find on the program.**

**The pounding music, the cheers, the admiration work their way into my blood, and I can't suppress my excitement. Cinna has given me a great advantage. No one will forget me. Not my look, not my name. Katniss. The girl who was on fire.**

**For the first time, I feel a flicker of hope rising up in me. Surely, there must be one sponsor willing to take me on! And with a little extra help, some food, the right weapon, why should I count myself out of the Games?**

"Well, you can't win the love of me...Your own uncle," Cinna sniffed sadly.

"Oh, shut up, you big buffoon," Haymitch said, slapping Cinna.

"CINNAMON!" Violet yelled. "Oh, Cinnamon, is your perfectly adoringly unfathomable face all right?"

"Yes, but I fear I may be scarred for life."

"As am I," Katniss said. "But for different reasons."

**Someone throws me a red rose. I catch it, give it a delicate sniff, and blow a kiss back in the general direction of the giver. A hundred hands reach up to catch my kiss, as if it were a real and tangible thing.**

"Which it's not," Peeta said, giving Katniss a peck on the cheek.

"I'm not keeping points anymore," Rhea said as Peeta looked expectantly at her.

"Wait, so you kissed me for the game?" Katniss fumed.

"No, my dear, I-"

"Gale, I LOVE YOU~!" Katniss plastered her lips on Gale's and embraced him.

**"Katniss! Katniss!" I can hear my name being called from all sides. Everyone wants my kisses.**

**It's not until we enter the City Circle that I realize I must have completely stopped the circulation in Peeta's hand. That's how tightly I've been holding it. I look down at our linked fingers as I loosen my grasp, but he regains his grip on me. "No, don't let go of me," he says. The firelight flickers off his blue eyes. "Please. I might fall out of this thing."**

**"Okay," I say. So I keep holding on, but I can't help feeling strange about the way Cinna has linked us together. It's not really fair to present us as a team and then lock us into the arena to kill each other.**

"HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE~!" Cinna laughed maniacally. "I...I HAVE SPLIT PER-PER-PER-PER-PERSONALITY..."

"That's great, Cinna," Octavia squealed. "Now please read!"

**The twelve chariots fill the loop of the City Circle. On the buildings that surround the Circle, every window is packed with the most prestigious citizens of the Capitol. Our horses pull our chariot right up to President Snow's mansion, and we come to a halt. The music ends with a flourish.**

**The president, a small, thin man with paper-white hair, gives the official welcome from a balcony above us. It is traditional to cut away to the faces of the tributes during the speech. But I can see on the screen that we are getting way more than our share of airtime. The darker it becomes, the more difficult it is to take your eyes off our flickering. When the national anthem plays, they do make an effort to do a quick cut around to each pair of tributes, but the camera holds on the District 12 chariot as it parades around the circle one final time and disappears into the Training Center.**

"I don't understand Capitolians," Cinna said.

"Of course you don't," Flavius said. "You've been a little gangstah with yo homies at D12 since ya wassa baby, man."

"I mean, they have such bad taste. The way Katniss and Peeta portrayed my beautiful costumes were horrid! I daresay that they were terrible-not the costumes, the people."

"Well, excuse us for being afraid of being burnt!"

**The doors have only just shut behind us when we're engulfed by the prep teams, who are nearly unintelligible as they babble out praise. As I glance around, I notice a lot of the other tributes are shooting us dirty looks, which confirms what I've suspected, we've literally outshone them all. Then Cinna and Portia are there, helping us down from the chariot, carefully removing our flaming capes and headdresses. Portia extinguishes them with some kind of spray from a canister.**

**I realize I'm still glued to Peeta and force my stiff fingers to open. We both massage our hands.**

**"Thanks for keeping hold of me. I was getting a little shaky there," says Peeta.**

**"It didn't show," I tell him. "I'm sure no one noticed."**

**"I'm sure they didn't notice anything but you. You should wear flames more often," he says. "They suit you." And then he gives me a smile that seems so genuinely sweet with just the right touch of shyness that unexpected warmth rushes through me.**

"Grr..." Gale growled.**  
**

**A warning bell goes off in my head. Don't be so stupid. Peeta is planning how to kill you, I remind myself. He is luring you in to make you easy prey. The more likable he is, the more deadly he is.**

**But because two can play at this game, I stand on tiptoe and kiss his cheek. Right on his bruise.**

"And I thought you were being sweet..." Peeta grumbled.

"Ha-ha!" Gale laughed mockingly.

"And that's the end of my beautiful debut of beautifully awesomely coolly cool stylishly pretty me!" Cinna said, flashing a smile.

"It's not your _debut_," Emarra said, "it's just another chapter."

"Drunk idiot," Haymitch sneered.

"And this is coming from who...?" Violet defended, offended. "My dear Cinnamon is _not_ a drunk idiot and he just read the best thing ever-his debut of himself!"

"Sniff...Hey, babe, have you ever thought of my feelings?...I'm married to a woman who's nuzzling with her brother, who's my nephew," Gerard sniffled.

"Oh. Ohh. OOOOOHHH...Oh, sick!" Katniss said disgustedly. "My dad is the uncle of my mom and I'm, like, somehow cousins with her and Cinna. Okay, that is _not_ right, Dad."

"You have a very normal family!" Effie squeaked. "My Dad's actually my grandpa who married my mom and then apparently my mom had an affair with her nephew who decided to make his unborn baby (that he made with his other aunt) and give it to my mom and say that it was her-"

"Okay, Effie, shut up now."

"Okay!"

"Oh, haven't you-"

"WOULD YOU STOP SAYING, 'Oh'?" Haymitch screamed.

"Um..."

"AND THAT'S THE END!" Rhea said, wrapping it up. "Er, of this chapter debut..."

* * *

**SpunkySpark helped out in the chapter. I wrote most of it but she made me put Flavius, Octavia, and Venia in. Did you enjoy?**

**Don't forget to vote in the poll at my profile. Oh, how could I forget? Please review. Tell us what characters the next chapter should have. Obviously, Katniss, Peeta, Gale, and Effie have to stay but should the love-birds? Any new people? TELL US!**

**Thanks, ya'll!**


	6. Chapter 5: Rue Everdeen?

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**Romeo is soooooooooo cute. And he's shedding. And his poop stinks. But that's not the point.**

**Everybody, I AM GROUNDED FOR A MONTH. I can't come on a lot. Sorry. **

**Hey, y'all! Have you checked out Spunky's new fics? YOU SHOULD! They're all cool. She's cool, I'm cool, you're cool if you read my cool stuff. XD **

**I READ MOCKINGJAY! So did Spunks. Has everyone here read Catching Fire? If you haven't, I don't suggest you reading the next chapter. I'm going to add a few CF people. ^^**

**If you guys are wondering, everyone is inside Rhea's extra mansion. There are the two dorms, one for the girls, one for the boys where they sleep. They are all white-walled, carpeted, with exactly one twin-sized bed to the far left corner (from the point of you when you just walk in). They also have a simple desk and chair. There is exactly two three-footed, empty drawers for decoration on the left wall. And that is it.**

**There is also the Reading room which has one floating light bulb in the middle. The walls are baby blue there is carpet on the floor. Below the light bulb there is a circular table that has one round sofa around it. There is no other furniture in the room. If Rhea wants something, it appears by magic.**

**Then there is the Waiting Room. If you have read The Mysterious Benedict Society, you'll get the inside joke. ^^ Like from TMBS, it is muddy but unlike TMBS's Waiting Room, it does not have any creepy crawlies. The walls are slathered in thin mud so the color is a brownish white. There are several sofas put throughout the room. It looks very much like a doctor's office waiting room.**

**There is always the Kitchen to go to for a snack. Even though DGs' don't need to eat, they always have a pantry for show. It's always stocked.  
**

**Anyway, we have another chapter up...

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Rhea's voice became sore when she began shouting. So she made the announcement quick. She just shouted the announcement. And she was in the room next door.

"Well, might as well go in..." she muttered. She entered the next room. There was chaos. Glimmer and Clove were using Cato as a tug-of-war rope, Peeta and Gale were having a cat fight, Madge and Katniss were trying to have a chicken conversation above the ridiculously loud noise, Effie was desperately trying to get the top off of Haymitch, Cinna and Violet were singing an off-key love song, Marvel-Dean and Kabysmo were trying to see how many holes Flavius, Octavia, and Venia could get before dying, Rue and Prim were betting on which stylist would die first, and Emarra was snoring loudly.

"...I see you all have been busy," Rhea carefully words. Silence. Everyone stops what they're doing. Emarra wakes up. Effie...well Effie becomes Effie.

"I am taking a few of you back to the Reading Room. The others will stay here. If you are hungry, please do not hesitate to call a Librarian." Silence.

"Now let's see...The essential: Kat, Pee, Gay-"

"THOSE ARE OUR ABBREVIATIONS?" Gale and Peeta shout out the same time.

Rhea continues, "-Eff, Em, Octopus, Venus, Flavor-"

"I appreciate your selected words to replace our real names..." Octavia says. Venia and Flavius nod eagerly.

"-Cinnamon, Vivi...That's about it." Rhea snaps her fingers. "Now if the rest of you will kindly file out to your respective dorms or hurry up and continue your own business." Haymitch and the others grumble a little bit but they sit down (they stood up due to the shock of Rhea) and continue doing what they were doing before.

"Please follow me," Rhea says to Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Effie, Emarra, Octavia, Venia, Flavius, Cinna, and Mrs. Everdeen. The ten people and one DG walk out of the room and go into the Reading Room.

"I insist that our dear Katniss read this time," Rhea says. Effie is about to protest before she is stopped by a glare from Rhea. "Or else."

Katniss takes the floating book that is glowing above the table in the middle of the room. Everyone takes a seat on the couch surrounding the little wooden table.

"I'll be in the Monitoring Room, see ya." Rhea poofs away.

"Um, guess we'll start," Katniss says.

********

**The Training Center has a tower designed exclusively for the tributes and their teams. This will be our home until the actual Games begin. Each district has an entire floor. You simply step onto an elevator and press the number of your district. Easy enough to remember.**

"Not really..." Peeta said. "I kept pressing 1 instead of 12." Everyone ignored him.

************

**I've ridden the elevator a couple of times in the Justice Building back in District 12. Once to receive the medal for my father's death and then yesterday to say my final goodbyes to my friends and family. But that's a dark and creaky thing that moves like a snail and smells of sour milk. The walls of this elevator are made of crystal so that you can watch the people on the ground floor shrink to ants as you shoot up into the air. It's exhilarating and I'm tempted to ask Effie Trinket if we can ride it again, but somehow that seems childish.**

"Oh please," Effie says, rolling her eyes. "There was a little boy from your District that actually wanted to see if my hair was a wig!" Peeta blushes suddenly.

"Wait, that was _you_?" Gale asks, trying hard not to laugh.

"What?" Peeta exclaims indignantly. "H-haven't you ever wondered?" Katniss stifles a chuckle.

"Maybe a few times," Katniss says thoughtfully, "but I haven't really ever cared about it." Peeta pouts.

Haymitch scoots closer to Peeta and whispers, "Well, was it a wig?" Peeta shakes his head.

"It was a squirrel."

****************

**Apparently, Effie Trinket's duties did not conclude at the station. She and Haymitch will be overseeing us right into the arena. In a way, that's a plus because at least she can be counted on to corral us around to places on time whereas we haven't seen Haymitch since he agreed to help us on the train. Probably passed out somewhere.**

"I was not!" Haymitch yells. "I was...I was...Come to think of it, what _was_ I doing?" Haymitch scratches his head quizzically. A buzz echoes in the room.

"You passed out after getting hit by an Avox because you were groping his butt," Rhea's voice blares through an unknown place.

"_His_ butt? _HIS_ butt? I mean, a girl's butt, okay, but a _guy's_ butt?" Haymitch screeches.

"Ew, I never knew you swung that way," Emarra says, visibly moving away from the drunk.

"I...I..."

"Are you inexperienced?" Cinna purrs. "Do you want me to help teach you how to seduct that man of your dreams?" Cinna licks his lips. Violet smacks him.

"I thought I convinced you that you were _not_ attracted to men!" Violet yelled.

"I'm _not_ attracted to men!" Cinna insists. "I am simply trying to help out a poor man in need!"

"..." Rhea says over the intercom. Except, she literally said "dot dot dot."

"Weirdos," Katniss mutters.

********************

**Effie Trinket, on the other hand, seems to be flying high. We're the first team she's ever chaperoned that made a splash at the opening ceremonies. She's complimentary about not just our costumes but how we conducted ourselves. And, to hear her tell it, Effie knows everyone who's anyone in the Capitol and has been talking us up all day, trying to win us sponsors.**

**"I've been very mysterious, though," she says, her eyes squint half shut. "Because, of course, Haymitch hasn't bothered to tell me your strategies. But I've done my best with what I had to work with. How Katniss sacrificed herself for her sister. How you've both successfully struggled to overcome the barbarism of your district."**

**Barbarism? That's ironic coming from a woman helping to prepare us for slaughter. And what's she basing our success on? Our table manners?**

"Well, yes, as a matter of fact, that was what I was basing your sucess on," Effie said informatively.

"Oh, right," said Emarra, rolling her eyes. "Anyone who wins the Hunger Games _must _have good table manners. That's why I didn't win, right? I dribbled some juice on my shirt when I ate those stupid poisonous berries that Peeta left out."

"Well, you did look rather undignified with that juice stain," admitted Effie. "But you were very close, dear. You had a lot of sponsers, you know. I get to know secret info like that. It was just, nobody sent you anything, because you were doing so good on your own!" Effie smiled maniacally.

"Right," Emarra said, a sarcastic look on her face. "Right."

********************

**"Everyone has their reservations, naturally. You being from the coal district. But I said, and this was very clever of me, I said, 'Well, if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls!'" Effie beams at us so brilliantly that we have no choice but to respond enthusiastically to her cleverness even though it's wrong.**

**Coal doesn't turn to pearls. They grow in shellfish. Possibly she meant coal turns to diamonds,**

"Oh," Effie said with a shrug. "Well, I was close, right?"

********************

**but that's untrue, too.**

"...Or not, BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" Effie looked around the room for supporters.

"Of course, cutie patootie," Haymitch scoffs with a sneer that he usually only uses with Katniss when he's annoyed, "of course."

********************

**I've heard they have some sort of machine in District 1 that can turn graphite into diamonds. But we don't mine graphite in District 12. That was part of District 13's job until they were destroyed.**

**I wonder if the people she's been plugging us to all day either know or care.**

**"Unfortunately, I can't seal the sponsor deals for you. Only Haymitch can do that," says Effie grimly. "But don't worry, I'll get him to the table at gunpoint if necessary."**

**Although lacking in many departments, Effie Trinket has a certain determination I have to admire.**

"I _am _a rather admirable person," said Effie Trinket with a shy smile.

"Shut up," said Gale.

********************

**My quarters are larger than our entire house back home. They are plush, like the train car, but also have so many automatic gadgets that I'm sure I won't have time to press all the buttons. The shower alone has a panel with more than a hundred options you can choose regulating water temperature, pressure, soaps, shampoos, scents, oils, and massaging sponges. When you step out on a mat, heaters come on that blow-dry your body. Instead of struggling with the knots in my wet hair, I merely place my hand on a box that sends a current through my scalp, untangling, parting, and drying my hair almost instantly. It floats down around my shoulders in a glossy curtain.**

"That was pretty cool," Katniss admitted.

"I know, right!" Venia exclaimed. "My favorite part is the H2o Massage. It was patented by my great grandmother's uncle's daughter's husband twice removed's brother!" she said proudly. "So when I heard about it, I simply HAD to get the Fanci-Shower 2056! And whenever someone mentions it, I tell them how I'm related to the inventor of it! Isn't that, like, soooo cool?" Octavia asked.

"Yeah, whatever. It wasn't that great actually," Katniss said.

********************

**I program the closet for an outfit to my taste. The windows zoom in and out on parts of the city at my command. You need only whisper a type of food from a gigantic menu into a mouthpiece and it appears, hot and steamy, before you in less than a minute. I walk around the room eating goose liver and puffy bread until there's a knock on the door. Effie's calling me to dinner.**

**Good. I'm starving.**

"You have a big appetite then," Effie said, genuinely surprised.

"Is the word, _sarcastic_, unknown to you?" Peeta asked.

"Unknown? Oh! Of _course _not, dear! I just don't know what it means!" Effie gave a big smile.

"AKA unknown," Gale said.

"Or that," Effie mumbles, looking down.

**Peeta, Cinna, and Portia are standing out on a balcony that overlooks the Capitol when we enter the dining room. I'm glad to see the stylists, particularly after I hear that Haymitch will be joining us. A meal presided over by just ****a silent young man dressed in a white tunic**

**Effie and Haymitch is bound to be a disaster. Besides, dinner isn't really about food, it's about planning out our strategies, and Cinna and Portia have already proven how valuable they are.**

**"**Oh, I can just imagine how beautifully handsome he would be!" Prim suddenly exclaimed. Everyone looked at her.

Rue rolled her eyes. "She's been like that ever since this lecher Avox kissed her on the hand. Some weird fetish of hers, I guess, now." Rue casually looks at her finger nails.

"Why the heck are you two here?" Cinna asked, a jolt of revolt running down his back. Vivi mussed his hair playfully.

"Oh, please, my two daughters are always welcome!" Mrs. Everdeen said with a grin, then she hugged the two.

"Rue isn't your daughter..." Katniss said slowly.

"She is, Katniss, you aren't." Katniss gasped as Violet said these words.

"B-but," Katniss stammered.

"WHOA, WHOA! I am so confused right now. Just how does this family work?" Haymitch asked, taking a step back and shaking his head.

Vivi explained: "I married Moose. We had two daughters. Their names are Rue and Primrose. Rue got shipped off to a cousin in District 11. Cinna is my brother. I am in love with him. Cinna is Moose's nephew-in-law. Moose does not like him. Cinna had a daughter with his wife, Laviria. Their daughter's name is Katniss. Cinna gave me Katniss because recently, Laviria ran off with another man. He was unable to care for Katniss. I took care of Katniss. Laviria had another child with a man with a scruffy face and a large wine belly. Their child's name is Lavinia."

Silence.

"Wait, that Avox girl is my _half-sister_?" Katniss shrieked.

"Wait, that red-haired lady was Katniss's mother?" Haymitch shrieked.

"Wait, you love your brother?" Gale shrieked.

"Wait, your husband is your brother's uncle-in-law?" Peeta shrieked.

"Wait, you shipped off your child?" Emarra shrieked.

"Wait, it's possible to ship off people's childs?" Venia shrieked.

"Wait, it's legal to ship off your child?" Octavia shrieked.

"Wait, that child was your child and you shipped her off?" Flavius shrieked.

"Wait, I don't have anything important or epic to say!" Effie shrieked.

Effie got slapped.

**offers us all stemmed glasses of wine. I think about turning it down, but I've never had wine, except the homemade stuff my mother uses for coughs, and when will I get a chance to try it again? I take a sip of the tart, dry liquid and secretly think it could be improved by a few spoonfuls of honey.**

**Haymitch shows up just as dinner is being served. It looks as if he's had his own stylist because he's clean and groomed and about as sober as I've ever seen him. He doesn't refuse the offer of wine, but when he starts in on his soup, I realize it's the first time I've ever seen him eat. Maybe he really will pull himself together long enough to help us.**

"I feel so loved," Haymitch said sarcastically.

"I know, you're just too lovable," Katniss replied.

**Cinna and Portia seem to have a civilizing effect on Haymitch and Effie. At least they're addressing each other decently. And they both have nothing but praise for our stylists' opening act. While they make small talk, I concentrate on the meal. Mushroom soup, bitter greens with tomatoes the size of peas, rare roast beef sliced as thin as paper, noodles in a green sauce, cheese that melts on your tongue served with sweet blue grapes. The servers, all young people dressed in white tunics like the one who gave us wine,**

"They must've been brilliant!" Prim said dreamily. "Dazzling! Sparkling! Like a vampire! Oooh! I'm about to faint!" Prim strikes a fainting pose.

"This is what I have to call...a sister," Rue said, in a position where she was ready to catch Prim.

"...Suddenly, I'm sort of thankful I'm not her sister," Katniss said.

**move wordlessly to and from the table, keeping the platters and glasses full.**

**About halfway through my glass of wine, my head starts feeling foggy, so I change to water instead. I don't like the feeling and hope it wears off soon. How Haymitch can stand walking around like this full-time is a mystery.**

**I try to focus on the talk, which has turned to our interview costumes, when a girl sets a gorgeous-looking cake on the table and deftly lights it. It blazes up and then the flames flicker around the edges awhile until it finally goes out. I have a moment of doubt. "What makes it burn? Is it alcohol?" I say, looking up at the girl. "That's the last thing I wa — oh! I know you!"**

**I can't place a name or time to the girl's face. But I'm certain of it. The dark red hair, the striking features, the porcelain white skin.**

"Lavinia," Katniss whispered. "I never knew she could be my half-sister."

**But even as I utter the words, I feel my insides contracting with anxiety and guilt at the sight of her, and while I can't pull it up, I know some bad memory is associated with her. The expression of terror that crosses her face only adds to my confusion and unease. She shakes her head in denial quickly and hurries away from the table.**

**When I look back, the four adults are watching me like hawks.**

**"Don't be ridiculous, Katniss. How could you possibly know an Avox?" snaps Effie. "The very thought."**

**"What's an Avox?" I ask stupidly.**

**"Someone who committed a crime. They cut her tongue so she can't speak," says Haymitch. "She's probably a traitor of some sort. Not likely you'd know her."**

**"And even if you did, you're not to speak to one of them unless it's to give an order," says Effie. "Of course, you don't really know her."**

**But I do know her. And now that Haymitch has mentioned the word traitor I remember from where. The disapproval is so high I could never admit it. "No, I guess not, I just —" I stammer, and the wine is not helping.**

**Peeta snaps his fingers. "Delly Cartwright. That's who it is. I kept thinking she looked familiar as well. Then I realized she's a dead ringer for Delly."**

**Delly Cartwright is a pasty-faced, lumpy girl with yellowish hair who looks about as much like our server as a beetle does a butterfly. She may also be the friendliest person on the planet — she smiles constantly at everybody in school, even me. I have never seen the girl with the red hair smile. But I jump on Peeta's suggestion gratefully.**

"Dude, if I didn't hate you so much, I would've actually given you a high-five," Gale said, impressed.

"How about a head-butt?" Peeta asked.

"Sure," Gale said with a shrug. Then they banged heads together. It was actually quite amusing to see the two thick-headed lugs drop to the floor, unconscious.

"Boys," Vivi sighed, shaking her head.

**"Of course, that's who I was thinking of. It must be the hair," I say.**

**"Something about the eyes, too," says Peeta.**

**The energy at the table relaxes. "Oh, well. If that's all it is," says Cinna. "And yes, the cake has spirits, but all the alcohol has burned off. I ordered it specially in honor of your fiery debut."**

**We eat the cake and move into a sitting room to watch the replay of the opening ceremonies that's being broadcast. A few of the other couples make a nice impression, but none of them can hold a candle to us. Even our own party lets out an "Ahh!" as they show us coming out of the Remake Center.**

**"Whose idea was the hand holding?" asks Haymitch.**

**"Cinna's," says Portia.**

**"Just the perfect touch of rebellion," says Haymitch. "Very nice."**

**Rebellion? I have to think about that one a moment. But when I remember the other couples, standing stiffly apart, never touching or acknowledging each other, as if their fellow tribute did not exist, as if the Games had already begun, I know what Haymitch means. Presenting ourselves not as adversaries but as friends has distinguished us as much as the fiery costumes.**

**"Tomorrow morning is the first training session. Meet me for breakfast and I'll tell you exactly how I want you to play it," says Haymitch to Peeta and I. "Now go get some sleep while the grown-ups talk."**

**Peeta and I walk together down the corridor to our rooms. When we get to my door, he leans against the frame, not blocking my entrance exactly but insisting I pay attention to him. "So, Delly Cartwright. Imagine finding her lookalike here."**

**He's asking for an explanation, and I'm tempted to give him one. We both know he covered for me. So here I am in his debt again. If I tell him the truth about the girl, somehow that might even things up. How can it hurt really? Even if he repeated the story, it couldn't do me much harm. It was just something I witnessed. And he lied as much as I did about Delly Cartwright.**

**I realize I do want to talk to someone about the girl. Someone who might be able to help me figure out her story.**

**Gale would be my first choice, but it's unlikely I'll ever see Gale again.**

"Dude, that is sweet. I'm her first choice." Gale gave a happy sigh.

"Oh, shut up, she still chose me." Peeta smirked.

Gale humphed.

"It's amazing how they can recuperate so fast," Vivi said, ignoring the background of bones crushing and blood gushing.

**I try to think if telling Peeta could give him any possible advantage over me, but I don't see how. Maybe sharing a confidence will actually make him believe I see him as a friend.**

**Besides, the idea of the girl with her maimed tongue frightens me. She has reminded me why I'm here. Not to model flashy costumes and eat delicacies. But to die a bloody death while the crowds urge on my killer.**

**To tell or not to tell? My brain still feels slow from the wine. I stare down the empty corridor as if the decision lies there.**

**Peeta picks up on my hesitation. "Have you been on the roof yet?" I shake my head. "Cinna showed me. You can practically see the whole city. The wind's a bit loud, though."**

**I translate this into "No one will overhear us talking" in my head. You do have the sense that we might be under surveillance here. "Can we just go up?"**

**"Sure, come on," says Peeta. I follow him to a flight of stairs that lead to the roof. There's a small dome-shaped room with a door to the outside. As we step into the cool, windy evening air, I catch my breath at the view. The Capitol twinkles like a vast field of fireflies. Electricity in District 12 comes and goes, usually we only have it a few hours a day. Often the evenings are spent in candlelight. The only time you can count on it is when they're airing the Games or some important government message on television that it's mandatory to watch. But here there would be no shortage. Ever.**

"Not necessarily..." Effie said. "We actually had a black-out once because of some Strays."

"What're Strays?" Katniss asked stupidly.

"Strays are murderous convicts that were emitted out of prison because their lawyer was good. Or they're escapees from jail," Haymitch explained.

"Actually, there were once some Strays in District 11. I remember when they caught my grandpa and me hostage-"

Emarra cut Rue off before she could finish. "That's quite enough out of you."

**Peeta and I walk to a railing at the edge of the roof. I look straight down the side of the building to the street, which is buzzing with people. You can hear their cars, an occasional shout, and a strange metallic tinkling. In District 12, we'd all be thinking about bed right now.**

**"I asked Cinna why they let us up here. Weren't they worried that some of the tributes might decide to jump right over the side?" says Peeta.**

**"What'd he say?" I ask.**

**"You can't," says Peeta. He holds out his hand into seemingly empty space. There's a sharp zap and he jerks it back. "Some kind of electric field throws you back on the roof."**

**"Always worried about our safety," I say. Even though Cinna has shown Peeta the roof, I wonder if we're supposed to be up here now, so late and alone. I've never seen tributes on the Training Center roof before. But that doesn't mean we're not being taped. "Do you think they're watching us now?"**

**"Maybe," he admits. "Come see the garden."**

**On the other side of the dome, they've built a garden with flower beds and potted trees. From the branches hang hundreds of wind chimes, which account for the tinkling I heard. Here in the garden, on this windy night, it's enough to drown out two people who are trying not to be heard. Peeta looks at me expectantly.**

**I pretend to examine a blossom. "We were hunting in the woods one day. Hidden, waiting for game," I whisper.**

**"You and your father?" he whispers back.**

**"No, my friend Gale.**

"You're still just a friend," Peeta said with fake pity, shrugging and sighing as if he cared.

"And you're still just a pretend lover," Gale said, mimicking Peeta precisely.

**Suddenly all the birds stopped singing at once. Except one. As if it were giving a warning call. And then we saw her. I'm sure it was the same girl. A boy was with her. Their clothes were tattered. They had dark circles under their eyes from no sleep. They were running as if their lives depended on it," I say.**

**For a moment I'm silent, as I remember how the sight of this strange pair, clearly not from District 12, fleeing through the woods immobilized us. Later, we wondered if we could have helped them escape. Perhaps we might have. Concealed them. If we'd moved quickly. Gale and I were taken by surprise, yes, but we're both hunters. We know how animals look at bay. We knew the pair was in trouble as soon as we saw them. But we only watched.**

**"The hovercraft appeared out of nowhere," I continue to Peeta. "I mean, one moment the sky was empty and the next it was there. It didn't make a sound, but they saw it. A net dropped down on the girl and carried her up, fast, so fast like the elevator. They shot some sort of spear through the boy. It was attached to a cable and they hauled him up as well. But I'm certain he was dead. We heard the girl scream once. The boy's name, I think. Then it was gone, the hovercraft. Vanished into thin air. And the birds began to sing again, as if nothing had happened."**

**"Did they see you?" Peeta asked.**

**"I don't know. We were under a shelf of rock," I reply.**

**But I do know. There was a moment, after the birdcall, but before the hovercraft, where the girl had seen us. She'd locked eyes with me and called out for help. But neither Gale or I had responded.**

"My half-sister," Katniss whispered, shivering. "I let my half-sister get captured right before my eyes."

Gale hugged Katniss, and she returned the motion.

"Don't fret, Catnip, I am just as at fault as you are. Probably even more." Katniss sobbed silently.

"**You're shivering," says Peeta.**

**The wind and the story have blown all the warmth from my body. The girl's scream. Had it been her last?**

**Peeta takes off his jacket and wraps it around my shoulders. I start to take a step back, but then I let him, deciding for a moment to accept both his jacket and his kindness. A friend would do that, right?**

**"They were from here?" he asks, and he secures a button at my neck.**

**I nod. They'd had that Capitol look about them. The boy and the girl.**

**"Where do you suppose they were going?" he asks.**

**"I don't know that," I say. District 12 is pretty much the end of the line. Beyond us, there's only wilderness. If you don't count the ruins of District 13 that still smolder from the toxic bombs. They show it on television occasionally, just to remind us. "Or why they would leave here." Haymitch had called the Avoxes traitors. Against what? It could only be the Capitol. But they had everything here. No cause to rebel.**

**"I'd leave here," Peeta blurts out. Then he looks around nervously. It was loud enough to hear above the chimes. He laughs. "I'd go home now if they let me. But you have to admit, the food's prime."**

**He's covered again. If that's all you'd heard it would just sound like the words of a scared tribute, not someone con templating the unquestionable goodness of the Capitol.**

**"It's getting chilly. We better go in," he says. Inside the dome, it's warm and bright. His tone is conversational. "Your friend Gale. He's the one who took your sister away at the reaping?"**

**"Yes. Do you know him?" I ask.**

**"Not really. I hear the girls talk about him a lot. I thought he was your cousin or something. You favor each other," he says.**

**"No, we're not related," I say.**

"Unfortunately," Gale grumbled. "You know, related could also mean you're married..."

"Ah, marriage!' said Vivian suddenly. "Nothing sweeter."

"The only thing sweeter than marriage is Cinnamon," Cinna said.

"Indeed, indeed." Vivian smiled happily.

"Uh, let's get on with the story before this get's too... awkward," Rhea instructed.

**Peeta nods, unreadable. "Did he come to say good-bye to you?"**

**"Yes," I say, observing him carefully. "So did your father. He brought me cookies."**

**Peeta raises his eyebrows as if this is news. But after watching him lie so smoothly, I don't give this much weight. "Really? Well, he likes you and your sister. I think he wishes he had a daughter instead of a houseful of boys."**

**The idea that I might ever have been discussed, around the dinner table, at the bakery fire, just in passing in Peeta's house gives me a start. It must have been when the mother was out of the room.**

**"He knew your mother when they were kids," says Peeta.**

**Another surprise. But probably true. "Oh, yes. She grew up in town," I say. It seems impolite to say she never mentioned the baker except to compliment his bread.**

Vivi blushed. "Oh, that baker was a wonderful man but I can't possibly just rant all day about how wonderful he was. He was my first love, you know."

**We're at my door. I give back his jacket. "See you in the morning then."**

**"See you," he says, and walks off down the hall.**

**When I open my door, the redheaded girl is collecting my unitard and boots from where I left them on the floor before my shower. I want to apologize for possibly getting her in trouble earlier. But I remember I'm not supposed to speak to her unless I'm giving her an order.**

**"Oh, sorry," I say. "I was supposed to get those back to Cinna. I'm sorry. Can you take them to him?"**

**She avoids my eyes, gives a small nod, and heads out the door.**

Katniss started crying. "I c-c-can't b-believe it. M-m-my own h-half sister!" she said between tears.

"There, there," Gale crooned. "You still have me, your faithful 'cousin.' "

"Shut up," Peeta told Gale.

**I'd set out to tell her I was sorry about dinner. But I know that my apology runs much deeper. That I'm ashamed I never tried to help her in the woods. That I let the Capitol kill the boy and mutilate her without lifting a finger.**

**Just like I was watching the Games.**

**I kick off my shoes and climb under the covers in my clothes. The shivering hasn't stopped. Perhaps the girl doesn't even remember me. But I know she does. You don't forget the face of the person who was your last hope. I pull the covers up over my head as if this will protect me from the redheaded girl who can't speak. But I can feel her eyes staring at me, piercing through walls and doors and bedding.**

**I wonder if she'll enjoy watching me die. **

Lavinia appeared out of nowhere. Or, she appeared out of somewhere, but nobody knew where, so it was like she appeared out of nowhere.

She spoke, "I didn't enjoy watching you die, because I knew you were my sister, and not Prim's, so even though I hated you, I loved you, because that's what sisters are for."

"Wait, I thought you were an Avox!" exclaimed Gale.

"Wait, I thought you hated Katniss!" exclaimed Effie.

"Wait, I had a sister named Evanna, but she hated me! Whaddya mean sisters are supposed to love each other?" exclaimed Cinna(mon).

Wait, I thought you were an only child!" exclaimed Haymitch.

"Wait, didn't we already establish all that earlier in this Chapter?" exclaimed Rhea.

"Wait, now I remember!" exclaimed Haymitch.

"Wait, can we stop saying 'wait' at the beginning of every sentence?" exclaimed Peeta.

"Okay."

"I regret bringing it up..." said Lavinia.

"Done." She waited for a moment. "Rhea?"

"Huh? Huh? What? Oh. Oh. Right, right. Uh...Go back to your dorms now." The intercom blared through the room.

"That's it? Good. I was getting sleepy." Cinna yawned for proof.

"...G'bye," Rue said as she left.

"Can I share a dorm with Edward Cullen? He's sparkly!" said Prim.

"Ew, no, he already married Bella," Peeta said.

"I wanna marry Cinnamon!" exclaimed Vivi.

"I don't blame you, m'dear," Cinnamon told her.

"THIS CHAPTER IS ENDING IN 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!" exclaimed Rhea.

And then the Chapter ended.

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**SO sorry for the delay. I am still grounded, but I snuck on. *wink* I will be trying to finish Savoring the Book by January/February. If I don't...well...I'll kill myself. JUST KIDDING. Latest deadline is March, but that won't be necessary. Help us achieve a grand total of at least 100 reviews!**

**Love, y'all. By the way, review.  
**


	7. Chapter 6: Author's Ramblings

**Hello, everybody, this is an announcement. (This is Shrub)**

**_I am sorry for not updating!_ I have been super busy, my laptop totally crashed, and I don't have The Hunger Games with me anymore!**

**_Savoring the Book will be updated once every two days starting November 1st. _This is a promise. If I don't, you can kill me.**

**_Savoring the Book will be ended if someone wants to sue us. _You can understand this, right? :P **

**_Savoring the Book will be including Catching Fire characters starting sometime in the next few chapters._ I'm sorry, I just have to have Finnick and Johanna in! I love those two characters!**

**_Savoring the Book will remain appropriate. _Meaning, don't request gross stuff. Cinna will still be girly and weird though!**

**_Savoring the Book will be finished by late January._ I hope anyway. :3**

**_Savoring the Book has a lot of un-canon pairings and strange family issues._ You know what I mean.**

**_Savoring the Book may have a sequel. _Meaning, yes, I am planning a CF sort of thing like this.**

**Thank you for reading through! I got tablet, btw. :DDDDDDDD**

**To reward your patience...a short Cinna story! WARNING: Serious crack.  


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**

Cinna woke up one day with his head hurting like heck. He couldn't understand why, so he went to take a look in the mirror.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!" he screamed as he saw his reflection. Instead of the usual beautiful face of perfect eyebrows, perfect eyes, perfect hair, perfect everything, it was replaced...by a girl.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he screamed.

"Darling, don't scream!" Mrs. Everdeen.

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEAM!" he screamed again.

And then Cinna realized it was a dream.


	8. Chapter 7: FIREWORKS!

**Back to the meat of the story!**

**DISCLAIMER: No, I do not own THG...Gosh...

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**

HEADLINES: With the sudden appearance of Lavinia Abernathy-all is in chaos. Rhea is flummoxed by the sudden summoning and has left no comment for this report. The others are either drunk, crazy, or unavailable for comment.

Let's just hopes this is interesting.

~Daily Millie

**My slumbers are filled with disturbing dreams. The face of the redheaded girl intertwines with gory images from earlier Hunger Games, with my mother withdrawn and unreachable, with Prim emaciated and terrified. I bolt up screaming for my father to run as the mine explodes into a million deadly bits of light.**

"They say dreams make up a lot of a person, look at you," Haymitch says while tsk-ing.

"They also say that a person's typical moods make up a lot of a person, look at you," Katniss retorts.

"Let's just say both of you are depressing, emo, terrible people, kay?" Rue smiles.

**Dawn is breaking through the windows. The Capitol has a misty, haunted air. My head aches and I must have bitten into the side of my cheek in the night. My tongue probes the ragged flesh and I taste blood.**

"Just a thought, but, do you like steak?" Peeta asks.

"Who're you asking?" Lavinia asks.

"Mr. Muffin."

"DON'T TALK ABOUT MR. MUFFIN!" Cinna screeches, a few hairs away from Peeta's nose.

"Sorry," Peeta squeaks.

**Slowly, I drag myself out of bed and into the shower. I arbitrarily punch buttons on the control board and end up hopping from foot to foot as alternating jets of icy cold and steaming hot water assault me. Then I'm deluged in lemony foam that I have to scrape off with a heavy bristled brush.**

"Tsk, tsk!" Effie says, wagging a finger at Katniss. "And I thought you were smart."

Gale punches her.

** Oh, well. At least my blood is flowing.**

"Wow! Your blood flows!" Haymitch says with mock surprise.

"Shut up," Katniss says, gritting her teeth.

**When I'm dried and moisturized with lotion, I find an outfit has been left for me at the front of the closet. Tight black pants, a long-sleeved burgundy tunic, and leather shoes. I put my hair in the single braid down my back. This is the first time since the morning of the reaping that I resemble myself. No fancy hair and clothes, no flaming capes. Just me. Looking like I could be headed for the woods. It calms me.**

**Haymitch didn't give us an exact time to meet for break-last and no one has contacted me this morning, but I'm hungry so I head down to the dining room, hoping there will be food. I'm not disappointed. While the table is empty, a long board off to the side has been laid with at least twenty dishes. A young man, an Avox, stands at attention by the spread.**

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Prim squeals as she blushes madly. "Ohmygod, Katniss, was he hawt?"

"...Prim," Vivi says calmly, "we do not say the word 'hawt'. Especially since you're such a young, fine, innocent girl."

"Oh, sorry, Mom," Prim says, then turns back to Katniss. "Was he _attractive_?"

"Prim!"

"Fine, was he noticeably more handsome than other male individuals?"

"Prim...I am losing my patience."

"Well, was he?" Prim asks again, ignoring her mother.

"S-sure, Prim, sure."

** When I ask if I can serve myself, he nods assent. I load a plate with eggs, sausages, batter cakes covered in thick orange preserves, slices of pale purple melon. As I gorge myself, I watch the sun rise over the Capitol. I have a second plate of hot grain smothered in beef stew. Finally, I fill a plate with rolls and sit at the table, breaking oil bits and dipping them into hot chocolate, the way Peeta did on the train.**

"I only did that because it looked good," Katniss explained hastily to Gale.

"Riiiiight," Peeta says slyly. "Riiiiiiight."

**My mind wanders to my mother and Prim. They must be up. My mother getting their breakfast of mush. Prim milking her goat before school. Just two mornings ago, I was home. Can that be right? Yes, just two. And now how empty the house feels, even from a distance. What did they say last night about my fiery debut at the Games? Did it give them hope, or simply add to their terror when they saw the reality of twenty-four tributes circled together, knowing only one could live?**

**Haymitch and Peeta come in, bid me good morning, fill their plates. It makes me irritated that Peeta is wearing exactly the same outfit I am.**

"PWN!" Gale yells out Peeta.

"Calm down, Gale," Vivi says motherly.

"YOU'RE NOT MY MOTHER AND I LOVE KATNISS SO PWWWWWN!1!1!21!"

"Gale."

"Sorry," he mumbles.

**I need to say something to Cinna. This twins act is going to blow up in out faces once the Games begin. Surely, they must know this. Then I remember Haymitch telling me to do exactly what the stylists tell me to do. If it was anyone but Cinna, I might be tempted to ignore him. But after last night's triumph, I don't have a lot of room to criticize his choices.**

Cinna smiles at Haymitch. Haymitch gives one of his rare half-grins. "Do you like me or some-"

Haymitch scowls and punches Cinna(mon) in the face.

**I'm nervous about the training. There will be three days in which all the tributes practice together. On the last afternoon, we'll each get a chance to perform in private before the Gamemakers. The thought of meeting the other tributes face-to-face makes me queasy. I turn the roll I have just taken from the basket over and over in my hands, but my appetite is gone.**

"Waster..." Prim taunts.

"Oh, shut up, midget."

**When Haymitch has finished several platters of stew, he pushes back his plate with a sigh. He takes a flask from his pocket and takes a long pull on it and leans his elbows on the table. "So, let's get down to business. Training. First off, if you like, I'll coach you separately. Decide now."**

**"Why would you coach us separately?" I ask.**

**"Say if you had a secret skill you might not want the other to know about," says Haymitch.**

**I exchange a look with Peeta. "I don't have any secret skills," he says. "And I already know what yours is, right? I mean, I've eaten enough of your squirrels."**

**I never thought about Peeta eating the squirrels I shot. Somehow I always pictured the baker quietly going off and frying them up for himself. Not out of greed. But because town families usually eat expensive butcher meat. Beef and chicken and horse.**

"You are one naive girl," Peeta sighs. "No, we don't eat those. That's for customers. Any leftovers are usually rotten or unedible so we throw them to the dogs."**  
**

**"You can coach us together," I tell Haymitch. Peeta nods.**

**"All right, so give me some idea of what you can do," says Haymitch.**

**"I can't do anything," says Peeta. "Unless you count baking bread."**

**"Sorry, I don't. Katniss. I already know you're handy with a knife," says Haymitch.**

**"Not really. But I can hunt," I say. "With a bow and arrow."**

**"And you're good?" asks Haymitch.**

**I have to think about it. I've been putting food on the table for four years. That's no small task. I'm not as good as my father was, but he'd had more practice. I've better aim than Gale, but I've had more practice. He's a genius with traps and snares. "I'm all right," I say.**

"How modest," Mrs. Everdeen muses. "That's my girl." Then Mrs. Everdeen stops. "Or, rather, your mother would be proud."**  
**

**"She's excellent," says Peeta. "My father buys her squirrels. He always comments on how the arrows never pierce the body. She hits every one in the eye. It's the same with the rabbits she sells the butcher. She can even bring down deer."**

**This assessment of my skills from Peeta takes me totally by surprise. First, that he ever noticed. Second, that he's talking me up. "What are you doing?" I ask him suspiciously.**

**"What are you doing? If he's going to help you, he has to know what you're capable of. Don't underrate yourself," says Peeta.**

**I don't know why, but this rubs me the wrong way. "What about you? I've seen you in the market. You can lift hundred-pound bags of flour," I snap at him. "Tell him that. That's not nothing."**

**"Yes, and I'm sure the arena will be full of bags of flour for me to chuck at people. It's not like being able to use a weapon. You know it isn't," he shoots back.**

**"He can wrestle," I tell Haymitch. "He came in second in our school competition last year, only after his brother."**

**"What use is that? How many times have you seen someone wrestle someone to death?" says Peeta in disgust.**

**"There's always hand-to-hand combat. All you need is to come up with a knife, and you'll at least stand a chance. If I get jumped, I'm dead!" I can hear my voice rising in anger.**

"...Battle between the two modest idiots," Rue comments.

**"But you won't! You'll be living up in some tree eating raw squirrels and picking off people with arrows. You know what my mother said to me when she came to say good-bye, as if to cheer me up, she says maybe District Twelve will finally have a winner. Then I realized, she didn't mean me, she meant you!" bursts out Peeta.**

**"Oh, she meant you," I say with a wave of dismissal.**

**"She said, 'She's a survivor, that one.' She is," says Peeta.**

**That pulls me up short. Did his mother really say that about me? Did she rate me over her son? I see the pain in Peeta's eyes and know he isn't lying.**

**Suddenly I'm behind the bakery and I can feel the chill of the rain running down my back, the hollowness in my belly. I sound eleven years old when I speak. "But only because someone helped me."**

**Peeta's eyes flicker down to the roll in my hands, and I know he remembers that day, too. But he just shrugs. "People will help you in the arena. They'll be tripping over each other to sponsor you."**

**"No more than you," I say.**

"You two are very annoying, you know? Sometimes, you just need to accept that you're awesome. Only sometimes though."

"Thanks, Rue," Peeta says snarkily, "we totally needed to know that."

**Peeta rolls his eyes at Haymitch. "She has no idea. The effect she can have." He runs his fingernail along the wood grain in the table, refusing to look at me.**

**What on earth does he mean? People help me? When we were dying of starvation, no one helped me! No one except Peeta. Once I had something to barter with, things changed. I'm a tough trader. Or am I? What effect do I have? That I'm weak and needy? Is he suggesting that I got good deals because people pitied me? I try to think if this is true. Perhaps some of the merchants were a little generous in their trades, but I always attributed that to their long-standing relationship with my father. Besides, my game is first-class. No one pitied me!**

"This is a time where you might want to be perhaps a little bit modest, Katniss," Rue says.

"I hate you."

**I glower at the roll sure he meant to insult me.**

"Wait, why would the roll insult you?" Peeta asks, a little bit confused.

Katniss smacks her head. "No, you idiot, YOU, not the ROLL! YOU!"

"Oh."

**After about a minute of this, Haymitch says, "Well, then. Well, well, well. Katniss, there's no guarantee they'll be bows and arrows in the arena, but during your private session with the Gamemakers, show them what you can do. Until then, stay clear of archery. Are you any good at trapping?"**

**"I know a few basic snares," I mutter.**

Gale gasps.

"And I thought you were listening when I taught you that Amazing Galeful Knot!"

"That is totally made up," Lavinia scoffs.

"IS NOT!" Gale huffs.

"Is too, and you know that," Katniss counters.

"Fine..."

**"That may be significant in terms of food," says Haymitch. "And Peeta, she's right, never underestimate strength in the arena. Very often, physical power tilts the advantage to a player. In the Training Center, they will have weights, but don't reveal how much you can lift in front of the other tributes. The plan's the same for both of you. You go to group training. Spend the time trying to learn something you don't know. Throw a spear. Swing a mace. Learn to tie a decent knot. Save showing what you're best at until your private sessions. Are we clear?" says Haymitch. Peeta and I nod.**

**"One last thing. In public, I want you by each other's side every minute," says Haymitch. We both start to object, but Haymitch slams his hand on the table. "Every minute! It's not open for discussion! You agreed to do as I said! You will be together, you will appear amiable to each other. Now get out. Meet Effie at the elevator at ten for training."**

"I actually never thought that would lead to romantic feelings," Haymitch admits.

"It didn't _lead_ to romantic feelings, they were _exposed_," Peeta insists.

"You keep telling yourself that," Katniss sneers.

**I bite my lip and stalk back to my room, making sure Peeta can hear the door slam. I sit on the bed, hating Haymitch, hating Peeta, hating myself for mentioning that day long ago in the rain.**

**It's such a joke! Peeta and I going along pretending to be friends! Talking up each other's strengths, insisting the other take credit for their abilities. Because, in fact, at some point, we're going to have to knock it off and accept we're bitter adversaries. Which I'd be prepared to do right now if it wasn't for Haymitch's stupid instruction that we stick together in training. It's my own fault, I guess, for telling him he didn't have to coach us separately. But that didn't mean I wanted to do everything with Peeta. Who, by the way, clearly doesn't want to be partnering up with me, either.**

**I hear Peeta's voice in my head. She has no idea. The effect she can have. Obviously meant to demean me. Right?**

"No, not right," Peeta whispers.

"Don't get all dramatic on her, lover boy," Prim says. "It doesn't work on the tough kind."

Peeta slaps Prim.

** but a tiny part of me wonders if this was a compliment. That he meant I was appealing in some way. It's weird, how much he's noticed me. Like the attention he's paid to my hunting. And apparently, I have not been as oblivious to him as I imagined, either. The flour. The wrestling. I have kept track of the boy with the bread.**

Katniss and Peeta blush. Gale groans.

"Dammit, why do you two have to be so difficult?"

**It's almost ten. I clean my teeth and smooth back my hair again. Anger temporarily blocked out my nervousness about meeting the other tributes, but now I can feel my anxiety rising again. By the time I meet Effie and Peeta at the elevator, I catch myself biting my nails.**

"That's a bad habit..." Rue whines. "You might bite off your fingers like my Great Aunt Mertha. Did I tell you about her? Aunty Mertha had a bad habit-biting nails-and once, her crush proposed to her-BAM! She bit off one of her fingers."

"Very nice...to know...Rue..." Katniss moans.

"How true! And even if you don't bite off your fingers! You won't have any nails to paint!" Effie squeals. *slap*

** I stop at once.**

"Good," Effie and Rue say at the same time.**  
**

**The actual training rooms are below ground level of our building. With these elevators, the ride is less than a minute. The doors open into an enormous gymnasium filled with various weapons and obstacle courses. Although it's not yet ten, we're the last ones to arrive. The other tributes are gathered in a tense circle. They each have a cloth square with their district number on it pinned to their shirts. While someone pins the number 12 on my back, I do a quick assessment. Peeta and I are the only two dressed alike.**

"No duh," Haymitch answers to the book. "Partners are people you're about to kill! Why would you-"

"Shut up, Haymitch, you're the one who made them dress the same." Lavinia laughs mockingly when Gale says this.

"And they call you my daughter..." *slap*

**(A/N: Why is the slap in asterisks? Cause I don't wanna put, "Somebody slapped Somebody". Okay? Okay)**

"LALALALALALALALALALA, MR. MUFFIN!"

"DON'T TALK ABOUT MR. MUFFIN!" Cinna screams.

**As soon as we join the circle, the head trainer, a tall, athletic woman named Atala steps up and begins to explain the training schedule. Experts in each skill will remain at their stations. We will be free to travel from area to area as we choose, per our mentor's instructions. Some of the stations teach survival skills, others fighting techniques. We are forbidden to engage in any combative exercise with another tribute. There are assistants on hand if we want to practice with a partner.**

"What if you want to practice with the air?" Cinna asks.

Katniss smacks her head in defeat.

**When Atala begins to read down the list of the skill stations, my eyes can't help flitting around to the other tributes. It's the first time we've been assembled, on level ground, in simple clothes. My heart sinks.**

"How does your heart sink? Did you have like a failed transplant for a heart when you are a kid and now magically you just happen to have a heart that sinks? That doesn't even make sense! So why do you-"

"Shut up, Effie. It's a metaphor."

** Almost all of the boys and at least half of the girls are bigger than I am, even though many of the tributes have never been fed properly. You can see it in their bones, their skin, the hollow look in their eyes. I may be smaller naturally, but overall my family's resourcefulness has given me an edge in that area. I stand straight, and while I'm thin, I'm strong.**

"Boasting..." Rue tuts.

"Shut up, midget."

"Hey!"

** The meat and plants from the woods combined with the exertion it took to get them have given me a healthier body than most of those I see around me.**

**The exceptions are the kids from the wealthier districts, the volunteers, the ones who have been fed and trained throughout their lives for this moment. The tributes from 1, 2, and 4 traditionally have this look about them. It's technically against the rules to train tributes before they reach the Capitol but it happens every year. In District 12, we call them the Career Tributes, or just the Careers.**

"Why Careers? Why not...the Cars? Or, or, or the, um, Lamborghinis?" Effie asks.

"Or the Noticeably More Handsome Than Other Male Individuals?" Prim offers.

"PRIM!" Mrs. Everdeen says, astounded.

"Sorry, Mom."

Rhea pops in. "Oh geez, get on with the story."

"Can we refer to the Careers as the Lamborghinis?" Effie asks.

"NO!" everyone replies forcefully.

** And like as not, the winner will be one of them.**

"One of the Lamborghi-"

"Careers," Katniss corrects.

**The slight advantage I held coming into the Training Center, my fiery entrance last night, seems to vanish in the presence of my competition. The other tributes were jealous of us, but not because we were amazing, because our stylists were. Now I see nothing but contempt in the glances of the Career Tributes. Each must have fifty to a hundred pounds on me. They project arrogance and brutality. When Atala releases us, they head straight for the deadliest-looking weapons in the gym and handle them with ease.**

"Intimidation," Haymitch muses, stroking his stubby chin. "The most useful tool before the Games."

"Stop talking to yourself, it's creeping me out."

**I'm thinking that it's lucky I'm a fast runner when Peeta nudges my arm and I jump. He is still beside me, per Haymitch's instructions. His expression is sober. "Where would you like to start?"**

**I look around at the Career Tributes who are showing off, clearly trying to intimidate the field. Then at the others, the underfed, the incompetent, shakily having their first lessons with a knife or an ax.**

**"Suppose we tie some knots," I say.**

Prim bursts out laughing.

"_Knots?_ You're going to die in the Arena in, what, a day and you go and tie...BWAHAHAHA!"

"Oh shut up."

**"Right you are," says Peeta. We cross to an empty station where the trainer seems pleased to have students. You get the feeling that the knot-tying class is not the Hunger games hot spot.**

"You'd wonder why..." Lavinia mumbles. Prim bursts out laughing again.

** When he realizes I know something about snares, he shows us a simple, excellent trap that will leave a human competitor dangling by a leg from a tree. We concentrate on this one skill for an hour until both of us have mastered it. Then we move on to camouflage. Peeta genuinely seems to enjoy this station, swirling a combination of mud and clay and berry juices around on his pale skin, weaving disguises from vines and leaves. The trainer who runs the camouflage station is full of enthusiasm at his work.**

"I actually think he's gay," Peeta says.

"Great...to know..." Katniss mutters hesitantly. "Can we move on?"

**"I do the cakes," he admits to me.**

**"The cakes?" I ask. I've been preoccupied with watching the boy from District 2**

"Cato," Rue clarifies.

"I think we are all well aware who the boy from District 2 is..." Katniss says, gritting her teeth from remembering him.

** send a spear through a dummy's heart from fifteen yards. "What cakes?"**

**"At home. The iced ones, for the bakery," he says.**

**He means the ones they display in the windows. Fancy cakes with flowers and pretty things painted in frosting. They're for birthdays and New Year's Day. When we're in the square, Prim always drags me over to admire them, although we'd never be able to afford one.**

Prim blushes. Peeta cocks his head. Gale laughs hysterically. Lavinia punches Gale.

** There's little enough beauty in District 12, though, so I can hardly deny her this.**

**I look more critically at the design on Peeta's arm. The alternating pattern of light and dark suggests sunlight falling through the leaves in the woods. I wonder how he knows this, since I doubt he's ever been beyond the fence. Has he been able to pick this up from just that scraggly old apple tree in his backyard? Somehow the whole thing — his skill, those inaccessible cakes, the praise of the camouflage expert — annoys me.**

Gale bursts out laughing again. Lavinia also punches him again.**  
**

**"It's lovely. If only you could frost someone to death," I say.**

**"Don't be so superior. You can never tell what you'll find in the arena. Say it's actually a gigantic cake —" begins Peeta.**

Lavinia whacks Peeta in the head.

"_Idiota!_" she says at Peeta in Italian. "_Non esiste una cosa come una torta gigante, all'interno di un Arena!_"

"Calm down, Lavinia..."

**"Say we move on," I break in.**

**So the next three days pass with Peeta and I going quietly from station to station. We do pick up some valuable skills, from starting fires, to knife throwing, to making shelter. Despite Haymitch's order to appear mediocre, Peeta excels in hand-to-hand combat, and I sweep the edible plants test without blinking an eye.**

"'Cept we apparently needed those in the Arena," Peeta whispers.

** We steer clear of archery and weightlifting though, wanting to save those for our private sessions.**

**The Gamemakers appeared early on the first day. Twenty or so men and women dressed in deep purple robes.**

"Why purple?" Haymitch asks. "Purple is for wimps."

"Hey! I like purple!" Prim huffs.

"And you're a wimp," Haymitch tuts.

** They sit in the elevated stands that surround the gymnasium, sometimes wandering about to watch us, jotting down notes, other times eating at the endless banquet that has been set for them, ignoring the lot of us. But they do seem to be keeping their eye on the District 12 tributes. Several times I've looked up to find one fixated on me. They consult with the trainers during our meals as well. We see them all gathered together when we come back.**

**Breakfast and dinner are served on our floor,**

"How ghastly!" Effie shrieks, shivering with disgust. "I oughta complain to those stupid, disgusting, pompous-"

"Effie!" Lavinia gasps. "Don't talk about yourself that way!"

**but at lunch the twenty-four of us eat in a dining room off the gymnasium. Food is arranged on carts around the room and you serve yourself. The Career**

"I think you mean the Lamborghinis," Effie says, waving her hand in the air.

"No I don't, and you know that," Katniss replies.

** Tributes tend to gather rowdily around one table, as if to prove their superiority, that they have no fear of one another and consider the rest of us beneath notice. Most of the other tributes sit alone, like lost sheep. No one says a word to us. Peeta and I eat together, and since Haymitch keeps dogging**

"Just why isn't it 'catting'?" Rue asks. "I've always particularly liked cats better than dogs."

"Me too!" Prim squeals. Rue and Prim do a Snoopy Dance together.

"Why are you dancing the Snoopy Dance if Snoopy is a dog?" Gale asks.

"I personally like dogs better," Katniss says.

Haymitch scoffs, "Who cares? And by the way, did you know that most people like dogs better because dogs are easily manipulated? Most people enjoy the control they have over the dogs so they enjoy being near them."

"Control freak~" Prim taunts. Katniss blushes.

"Shut up!"

** us about it, try to keep up a friendly conversation during the meals.**

**It's not easy to find a topic. Talking of home is painful. Talking of the present unbearable. One day, Peeta empties our breadbasket and points out how they have been careful to include types from the districts along with the refined bread of the Capitol. The fish-shaped loaf tinted green with seaweed from District 4. The crescent moon roll dotted with seeds from District 11. Somehow, although it's made from the same stuff, it looks a lot more appetizing than the ugly drop biscuits that are the standard fare at home.**

"I..." Lavinia starts with a vacant stare. "Never mind."

"What is it?" Peeta asks.

"None of your business, that's for sure," Lavinia sneers, back to her usual sarcastic self.

**"And there you have it," says Peeta, scooping the breads back in the basket.**

**"You certainly know a lot," I say.**

"Yes I do..." Peeta smiles broadly.

"You have something in your mouth..." Lavinia says, looking in.

"I do?" Peeta asks, looking for a mirror.

"Yeah, your teeth, _idiota poco_," Lavinia laughs.

**"Only about bread," he says. "Okay, now laugh as if I've said something funny."**

**We both give a somewhat convincing laugh and ignore the stares from around the room.**

**"All right, I'll keep smiling pleasantly and you talk,"**

"That sounds reeeaaaaallllyyyyy weird," Prim says.

"You think?" Katniss asks, sarcastically.

** says Peeta. It's wearing us both out, Haymitch's direction to be friendly. Because ever since I slammed my door, there's been a chill in the air between us. But we have our orders.**

**"Did I ever tell you about the time I was chased by a bear?" I ask.**

**"No, but it sounds fascinating," says Peeta.**

"It was," Peeta says with mock fascination. "Absolutely fascinating!"**  
**

**I try and animate my face as I recall the event, a true story, in which I'd foolishly challenged a black bear over the rights to a beehive. Peeta laughs and asks questions right on cue. He's much better at this than I am.**

**On the second day, while we're taking a shot at spear throwing, he whispers to me. "I think we have a shadow."**

**I throw my spear, which I'm not too bad at actually, if I don't have to throw too far, and see the little girl from District 11 standing back a bit, watching us. She's the twelve-year-old, the one who reminded me so of Prim in stature. Up close she looks about ten. She has bright, dark, eyes and satiny brown skin and stands tilted up on her toes with her arms slightly extended to her sides, as if ready to take wing at the slightest sound. It's impossible not to think of a bird.**

"Oh, thanks," Rue says. "I never thought this was how you'd describe me. I always thought you'd look at me and think, 'What a cute midget'."

"I do sometimes," Katniss admits, "but not always."

**I pick up another spear while Peeta throws. "I think her name's Rue," he says softly.**

**I bite my lip. Rue is a small yellow flower that grows in the Meadow. Rue. Primrose. Neither of them could tip the scale at seventy pounds soaking wet.**

"Whoa there, sister, I'm now 70.2 pounds!" Prim says.

"And I'm 70.3 pounds!" Rue adds.

"...And you're proud about that?"

**"What can we do about it?" I ask him, more harshly than I intended.**

**"Nothing to do," he says back. "Just making conversation."**

**Now that I know she's there, it's hard to ignore the child. She slips up and joins us at different stations. Like me, she's clever with plants, climbs swiftly, and has good aim. She can hit the target every time with a slingshot. But what is a slingshot against a 220-pound male with a sword?**

"Quite a bit actually," Rue says. "I killed, I believe District 6 with it. And then I got the socks."

"Oh yes, the socks."

"Mr. Muffin?" Peeta asks.

"DON'T TALK ABOUT MR. MUFFIN!" Cinna shrieks. He had been sitting in a corner with Vivi coaxing him. Who was this Mr. Muffin again?

**Back on the District 12 floor, Haymitch and Effie grill us throughout breakfast and dinner about every moment of the day. What we did, who watched us, how the other tributes size up. Cinna and Portia aren't around, so there's no one to add any sanity to the meals. Not that Haymitch and Effie are fighting anymore.**

"Oh, we fight," Haymitch growls.

"With our eyes..." Effie ends. The two have a stare down with Effie winning when she licks Haymitch's nose.

"EEEEEWWW!"

** Instead they seem to be of one mind, determined to whip us into shape. Full of endless directions about what we should do and not do in training. Peeta is more patient, but I become fed up and surly.**

**When we finally escape to bed on the second night, Peeta mumbles, "Someone ought to get Haymitch a drink."**

**I make a sound that is somewhere between a snort and a laugh.**

"A snaff?" Rue asks.

"A lort?" Prim asks.

"No, something between a snort and a laugh."

** Then catch myself. It's messing with my mind too much, trying to keep straight when we're supposedly friends and when we're not. At least when we get into the arena, I'll know where we stand. "Don't. Don't let's pretend when there's no one around."**

**"All right, Katniss," he says tiredly. After that, we only talk in front of people.**

"I was devastated when you made that choice," Peeta says.

"Not me," Katniss says cheerily.

**On the third day of training, they start to call us out of lunch for our private sessions with the Gamemakers. District by district, first the boy, then the girl tribute. As usual, District 12 is slated to go last. We linger in the dining room, unsure where else to go. No one comes back once they have left. As the room empties, the pressure to appear friendly lightens. By the time they call Rue, we are left alone. We sit in silence until they summon Peeta. He rises.**

"How specific," Haymitch says.**  
**

**"Remember what Haymitch said about being sure to throw the weights." The words come out of my mouth without permission.**

**"Thanks. I will," he says. "You . . . shoot straight."**

"BWAHAHAHAHA!" Gale bursts out. "'Shoot straight'? That's all you could think of? 'Shoot straight'? You're even more pathetic than I thought you were!"

"Oh, shut up, you bag of poo."

**I nod. I don't know why I said anything at all. Although if I'm going to lose, I'd rather Peeta win than the others. Better for our district, for my mother and Prim.**

**After about fifteen minutes, they call my name. I smooth my hair, set my shoulders back, and walk into the gymnasium. Instantly, I know I'm in trouble. They've been here too long, the Gamemakers. Sat through twenty-three other demonstrations. Had too much to wine, most of them. Want more than anything to go home.**

**There's nothing I can do but continue with the plan. I walk to the archery station. Oh, the weapons! I've been itching to get my hands on them for days! Bows made of wood and plastic and metal and materials I can't even name. Arrows with feathers cut in flawless uniform lines. I choose a bow, string it, and sling the matching quiver of arrows over my shoulder. There's a shooting range, but it's much too limited. Standard bull's-eyes and human silhouettes. I walk to the center of the gymnasium and pick my first target. The dummy used for knife practice.**

"I've always thought it was a manikin," Effie says thoughtfully.

"Yeah, imagine dressing a knife dummy up," snorts Haymitch.

"What a wonderful idea!" Effie squeals.

** Even as I pull back on the bow I know something is wrong. The string's tighter than the one I use at home. The arrow's more rigid. I miss the dummy by a couple of inches and lose what little attention I had been commanding. For a moment, I'm humiliated, then I head back to the bull's-eye. I shoot again and again until I get the feel of these new weapons.**

**Back in the center of the gymnasium, I take my initial position and skewer the dummy right through the heart.**

"Poor heart, it would take a quite a bit to cover that up with a dress," Effie sobs.

"I was kidding!" Haymitch exclaims.

** Then I sever the rope that holds the sandbag for boxing, and the bag splits open as it slams to the ground. Without pausing, I shoulder-roll forward, come up on one knee, and send an arrow into one of the hanging lights high above the gymnasium floor. A shower of sparks bursts from the fixture.**

"Ooh..." Vivi exclaims suddenly. "Fireworks..."

"What...?"

**It's excellent shooting. I turn to the Gamemakers. A few are nodding approval, but the majority of them are fixated on a roast pig that has just arrived at their banquet table.**

**Suddenly I am furious, that with my life on the line, they don't even have the decency to pay attention to me. That I'm being upstaged by a dead pig.**

"Fireworks..." Mrs. Everdeen mumbles. "Fireworks..."

"What are you talking about?"

** My heart starts to pound, I can feel my face burning. Without thinking, I pull an arrow from my quiver and send it straight at the Gamemakers' table. I hear shouts of alarm as people stumble back. The arrow skewers the apple in the pig's mouth and pins it to the wall behind it. Everyone stares at me in disbelief.**

**"Thank you for your consideration," I say. Then I give a slight bow and walk straight toward the exit without being dismissed.**

"FIREWORKS!" Violet's finger points at an empty space in the wall.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!" BAAAAAAAM!

* * *

**What happened? Find out in two days! REVIEW!**


	9. Chapter 8: Mull River Shuffle?

**Hey, all! I hope you enjoyed the last chapter! Left you a cliff-hanger there!**

**If you have not read Catching Fire yet, I suggest you look away.**

Characters:

Katniss Everdeen  
Gale Hawthorne  
Peeta Mellark  
Effie Trinket  
Haymitch Abernathy  
Lavinia Faella-Abernathy  
Primrose Everdeen  
Rue Everdeen  
*SPOILER*FinnickOdair*SPOILER*  
*SPOILER*JohannaMason*SPOILER*

**Somehow, Emarra disappeared. The lovebirds were taken away...the stylists are gone. The Lamborghinis (Katniss: THE CAREERS, GARDONIT!) are in the Waiting Room. 'Kay, we're good.**

**BTW, my cat, Romeo, has this virus of which he has too much of something (I dunno what) in his blood and he only has about three months to live. :( He's a good cat, he's very cute and loving, so why does he have to die? Please pray for him.**

**Sad things aside, enjoy this chapter!

* * *

**

A blue puff of smoke flew into the THG cast. All of them hacked violently as two figures slithered into the crowd.

"Yo, this is...Finnick, I am here to take back Cinna and Violet Everdeen." A strong, muscular man stood out and smiled charmingly. "I'm here with...Johanna. I see y'all have been having a nice time while we were stuck in Κόλαση."

"Finnick?" Katniss's face portrayed a perfect example of both sheer joy, absolute shock, and utter amusement. She tackled him. "Finnick! I missed you-"

"-so much?" Finnick finished. Katniss laughed as she hugged Finnick. Gale and Peeta groaned in envy.

"'Nuff with the lovey-dovey stuff, Finn, aren't we supposed to take back the incest-people?" A rough, short-haired girl popped out chewing on a piece of gum strided out with a smug grin plastered on her face.

"Johanna!" Katniss exclaimed, but she restrained to hug her due to the amount of disgust on her face.

"You have a really nice way of greeting people. Shout their name then go and hug them. You should become a therapist." Johanna laughed at her own joke. "Scratch that, you _need_ a therapist."

"Nice to know that you're as kind as ever," Katniss replied with as much sarcasm Johanna did.

"Hello, I am Violet Everdeen, Rue and Primrose Everdeen's mother. Are you here to-"

"-take back me and my brother," Finnick finished. "Yes, yes we are. Johanna is going to bring you two back and then she'll come back and observe and monitor you all."

"Oh, joy," Haymitch said sarcastically. Johanna socked him in the gut. "Uuggghhh..."

"I'm spending my precious time entertaining you guys so you guys better be thankful. I don't usually give my subordinates my glorious presence." Johanna struck a pose.

"Right, right, right," Haymitch groaned, clutching his stomach. "O' course...yeah...ow..."

"Now you know my power," Johanna said with a grin. "Ah, now then, love-birds, let's leave." She grabbed Cinna and Violet and then closed her eyes. Slowly, they began to disappear. After about five minutes, they weren't there anymore.

"While Johanna's away doing the paperwork, why don't you all begin reading? I love a good story." Finnick flopped himself onto the couch.

"Okay, why don't you read then, Finnick?"

"Sure, okay...**Chapter 7...**"

**As I stride toward the elevator, I fling my bow to one side and my quiver to the other. I brush past the gaping Avoxes who guard the elevators and hit the number twelve button with my fist.**

"And then I accidentally hit the 7 button and the 11 button so I had to wait a little bit..." Katniss said sheepishly.

"Which is exactly why you never punch an elevator button," Effie said pointedly.

"I punched the elevator before, then the elevator blew up and there was black-out for the next two months." Rue smiled as the thought.

"Whiiiiich is why you never punch anything inside the elevator."

"Interestingly enough, that was how I learned to blend in with the shadows to steal food," Rue said.

"As much as this conversation's just _fascinating_, I would like to get on with the book," Finnick said quietly. "I've got a schedule to keep, autographs to sign, et eh kuh."

** The doors slide together and I zip upward. I actually make it back to my floor before the tears start running down my cheeks. I can hear the others calling me from the sitting room, but I fly down the hall into my room, bolt the door, and fling myself onto my bed. Then I really begin to sob.**

"Sob, sob, sob," Lavinia "sobs".

"I've always thought that 'sob' was a funny word," Prim mused. "Why not 'gooby'? Yeah, why can't you gooby instead of cry?"

Lavinia snapped, "'Cause you can't, now be quiet."

**Now I've done it! Now I've ruined everything! If I'd stood even a ghost of chance, it vanished when I sent that arrow flying at the Gamemakers. What will they do to me now? Arrest me? Execute me? Cut my tongue and turn me into an Avox so I can wait on the future tributes of Panem?**

"Well, aren't you optimistic?" Haymitch asked, caustic.

** What was I thinking, shooting at the Gamemakers? Of course, I wasn't, I was shooting at that apple because I was so angry at being ignored. I wasn't trying to kill one of them. If I were, they'd be dead!**

"This is what you would call 'allusive pride'," Rue explained.

"And this is what you would call an 'unallusive punch'." Katniss punched Rue smack in the face.

**Oh, what does it matter? It's not like I was going to win the Games anyway. Who cares what they do to me? What really scares me is what they might do to my mother and Prim, how my family might suffer now because of my impulsiveness.**

"You are rather impulsive," Gale muttered sheepishly. "Remember the time when you..."

"Yeah...I remember that...and then I..." Katniss motioned wildly.

"Oh yes...and then you..."

"That thing while you did...and I just...while you tried to...uh huh..."

"Right...And then we..."

"WOULD YOU GUYS JUST SHUT UP OR GET ON WITH THE POINT?"

** Will they take their few belongings, or send my mother to prison and Prim to the community home, or kill them? They wouldn't kill them, would they? Why not? What do they care?**

**I should have stayed and apologized. Or laughed, like it was a big joke.**

"One funny joke that might've killed them!" Effie squealed as if someone gave her a million dollars.

"Hahaha..." Finnick laughed weakly. "I'd love to be the recipient of that joke. What fun that would be."

** Then maybe I would have found some leniency. But instead I stalked out of the place in the most disrespectful manner possible.**

**Haymitch and Effie are knocking on my door. I shout for them to go away and eventually they do. It takes at least an hour for me to cry myself out.**

"How is that possible?" Peeta asked.

"Well, the human body is made up of 55%-78% of water," Rue clarified. "Were you considerably thirsty after crying?"

"I didn't quite notice, I was too busy thinking about what the Capitol might've been doing to my beloved family, idiot."

** Then I just lay curled up on the bed, stroking the silken sheets, watching the sun set over the artificial candy Capitol.**

**At first, I expect guards to come for me. But as time passes, it seems less likely. I calm down. They still need a girl tribute from District 12, don't they? If the Gamemakers want to punish me, they can do it publicly. Wait until I'm in the arena and sic starving wild animals on me. You can bet they'll make sure I don't have a bow and arrow to defend myself.**

**Before that though, they'll give me a score so low, no one in their right mind would sponsor me.**

"Not that anyone in the Capitol is in their right mind-just take a look at Effie." Everyone's head swiveled to meet Effie. She was yodeling loudly as she strummed randomly on a banjo.

** That's what will happen tonight. Since the training isn't open to viewers, the Gamemakers announce a score for each player. It gives the audience a starting place for the betting that will continue throughout the Games. The number, which is between one and twelve, one being irredeemably bad and twelve being unattainably high, signifies the promise of the tribute.**

"My father taught me a rhyme to understand the point system.

The Capitol will give a one: that's the sign for 'dumb goh-bih-lun'

If they give you a two: you'll be made into stew

Let's say a three: you're ground meat

Enjoy your measly four: you'll be trampled by a boar

A five is okay: you might win, just a may

Lucky you, a six: you must've had some funny tricks

Oh lovely, a seven: perhaps you might reach the holy Heaven-"

"Rue, no."

** The mark is not a guarantee of which person will win. It's only an indication of the potential a tribute showed in training. Often, because of the variables in the actual arena, high-scoring tributes go down almost immediately.**

"How reassuring of you to say that when you get a high score yourself," Johanna said, popping in.

"SSSHHHH!" Effie "shh"ed the girl. "_Don't spoil the story!_"

** And a few years ago, the boy who won the Games only received a three.**

"Which one was that again?" Prim asked Rue.

"Remember? The hot guy? 12 years old, dirty blonde hair, blue eyes?" Rue answered.

"OHHH, yeah, yeah, _that_ guy!" Prim said, realizing. "His name was...uhh...Hamlet. Yeah, Hamlet! The omelet guy!"

"That's the one!" Rue exclaimed.

Johanna sighed. "This proves why I don't like midgets."

** Still, the scores can help or hurt an individual tribute in terms of sponsorship. I had been hoping my shooting skills might get me a six or a seven, even if I'm not particularly powerful. Now I'm sure I'll have the lowest score of the twenty-four. If no one sponsors me, my odds of staying alive decrease to almost zero.**

**When Effie taps on the door to call me to dinner, I decide I may as well go. The scores will be televised tonight. It's not like I can hide what happened forever. I go to the bathroom and wash my face, but it's still red and splotchy.**

"Speaking of red and blotchy, remember Health ED?" Gale asked Katniss.

"Ohh...Man...Don't mention that," Peeta groaned.

"I'll have to second Peeta on this one, that was probably the worst class EVER." Katniss clutched her stomach in disgust. "I can still remember Mrs. Boy Guts, or whatever her name was, popping Delly's pimple."

"Stop it..." Peeta moaned.

"You guys had the kiddy stuff. District 4 had to deal with rapidly growing little girls and boys so...yeah...I remember kindergarten...We talked about ****** and ***** and also ***********..." Peeta, Gale, and Katniss cringed as Finnick went on about his classes. Even Johanna looked a little green.

Lavinia burst out, "Hate to burst your bubbles, or pimples is you want me to be funny, but could we go on with the story?" Finnick obliged quickly.

**Everyone's waiting at the table, even Cinna and Portia. I wish the stylists hadn't shown up because for some reason, I don't like the idea of disappointing them. It's as if I've thrown away all the good work they did on the opening ceremonies without a thought. I avoid looking at anyone as I take tiny spoonfuls of fish soup. The saltiness reminds me of my tears.**

"Eeww...You eat your tears?" Effie said in disgust.

"Effie, what do you think?" Gale asked.

"I think it's disgusting!" Effie replied in an atrocious tone. Everybody rolled their eyes.

**The adults begin some chitchat about the weather forecast,**

"A gentle fall of rain in the night, mostly clear, and tomorrow would be bright and sunny," Haymitch recalled.

"No one cares, Haymitch," Lavinia snapped.

** and I let my eyes meet Peeta's. He raises his eyebrows. A question. What happened? I just give my head a small shake. Then, as they're serving the main course, I hear Haymitch say, "Okay, enough small talk, just how bad were you today?"**

**Peeta jumps in. "I don't know that it mattered. By the time I showed up, no one even bothered to look at me. They were singing some kind of drinking song,**

"The Mull River Shuffle or something," Peeta mumbled. "It's actually not that bad of a song, just sort of weird. The judges were also chanting something. I think it was trusa or something."

"...Peeta, I think they were chanting 'cheesa'," Finnick said. Then he added quickly, "I know because they did that to me too. I guess Brutus brought them a little present when he was presenting himself."

** I think. So, I threw around some heavy objects until they told me I could go."**

**That makes me feel a bit better. It's not like Peeta attacked the Gamemakers, but at least he was provoked, too.**

**"And you, sweetheart?" says Haymitch.**

**Somehow Haymitch calling me sweetheart ticks me off enough that I'm at least able to speak.**

"Whaddya want me to call you? Honey-bunches of oats?" Haymitch asked snarkily.

"Katniss is fine, sort of because it's my name," Katniss retorted.

"Why don't you call her cheerios?" Prim offered. Katniss gave Prim the look and Prim shrank into the puffy couch she was sitting on. "How about Fruit-Loops?" she squeaked softly.

"No, Prim, Katniss is my name."

** "I shot an arrow at the Gamemakers."**

**Everyone stops eating. "You what?" The horror in Effie's voice confirms my worse suspicions.**

**"I shot an arrow at them. Not exactly at them. In their direction. It's like Peeta said, I was shooting and they were ignoring me and I just . . . I just lost my head,**

Effie looked at Katniss in shock. "Did you take the mannequin's head?" she shrieked.

"ENOUGH WITH THE MANNEQUIN!" Haymitch roared. "I was _joking_ about the it wearing clothes! GOSH!"

"Did you?" Effie meeped. Haymitch snarled.

** so I shot an apple out of their stupid roast pig's mouth!" I say defiantly.**

**"And what did they say?" says Cinna carefully.**

**"Nothing. Or I don't know.**

"There's a difference," Rue said. Everyone looked at her. "Just saying."

** I walked out after that," I say.**

**"Without being dismissed?" gasps Effie.**

"Without being dismissed?" gasped Effie at the same time that line was read out loud.

"Effie, please refrain from sharing lines with me," Finnick said.

**"I dismissed myself," I said. I remember how I promised Prim that I really would try to win and I feel like a ton of coal has dropped on me.**

"Drip, drop, drip," Rhea said over the intercom.**  
**

**"Well, that's that," says Haymitch. Then he butters a roll.**

"Butter a roll indeed!" Gale huffed. "While my girlfriend is worried sick about-"

"I am not your girlfriend," Katniss said simply and Gale shut up.

**"Do you think they'll arrest me?" I ask. **

**"Doubt it. Be a pain to replace you at this stage," says Haymitch.**

**"What about my family?" I say. "Will they punish them?"**

"You sounded so much like a preschooler, I almost pinched your cheeks," Haymitch said.

"Thaaaaanks," Katniss said sarcastically.

**"Don't think so. Wouldn't make much sense. See they'd have to reveal what happened in the Training Center for it to have any worthwhile effect on the population. People would need to know what you did. But they can't since it's secret, so it'd be a waste of effort," says Haymitch. "More likely they'll make your life hell**

Effie gasped. "YOU SAID H-E-DOUBLE TOOTHPICKS!" she wheezed.

"Of course I did, cause that's what it is-Hell." Haymitch smiled fake charmingly. Effie fainted.

** in the arena."**

**"Well, they've already promised to do that to us any way," says Peeta.**

**"Very true," says Haymitch. And I realize the impossible has happened. They have actually cheered me up.**

"Up, up, up," Rhea echoes in the intercom.

"Shut UP UP UP!" Lavinia yells at the walls.

** Haymitch picks up a pork chop with his fingers, which makes Effie frown,**

Peeta and Katniss stifle a laugh.

** and dunks it in his wine. He rips off a hunk of meat and starts to chuckle. "What were their faces like?"**

**I can feel the edges of my mouth tilting up. "Shocked. Terrified. Uh, ridiculous, some of them." An image pops into my mind. "One man tripped backward into a bowl of punch."**

"Plutarch," Peeta, Gale, Katniss, Finnick, Johanna, and Haymitch say at the same time.**  
**

**Haymitch guffaws and we all start laughing except Effie, although even she is suppressing a smile. "Well, it serves them right. It's their job to pay attention to you. And just because you come from District Twelve is no excuse to ignore you." Then her eyes dart around**

Effie's eyes dart around to show everyone what it looked like.

** as if she's said something totally outrageous. "I'm sorry, but that's what I think," she says to no one in particular.**

"I said it to the air!" she said indignantly. "You oughta apologize right now! I bet you that you hurt his feelings." No one responds.**  
**

**"I'll get a very bad score," I say.**

**"Scores only matter if they're very good, no one pays much attention to the bad or mediocre ones. For all they know, you could be hiding your talents to get a low score on purpose. People use that strategy," said Portia.**

"Portia, Portia, Portia," Rhea parroted chipperly.

"Please..." Lavinia muttered. "Shut...up..."

**"I hope that's how people interpret the four I'll probably get," says Peeta. "If that. Really, is anything less impressive than watching a person pick up a heavy ball and throw it a couple of yards.**

"You know what's less impressive?" Gale asked. Then he answered himself, "Watching that same person here grow a zit the size of Mount Olympus." Peeta blushed and growled at Gale.

** One almost landed on my foot."**

Gale guffawed loudly. Katniss stepped on his foot.**  
**

**I grin at him and realize that I'm starving. I cut off a piece of pork, dunk it in mashed potatoes, and start eating. It's okay. My family is safe. And if they are safe, no real harm has been done.**

**After dinner, we go to sitting room to watch the scores announced on television. First they show a photo of the tribute, then flash their score below it. The Career Tributes naturally get in the eight-to-ten range. Most of the other players average a five.**

Effie sighed. "It was actually sort of disappointing. I lost 60 karats to some bald guy because District 6 got a 5."

"Naturally, the Capitol doesn't give squat for other people's lives and feelings and bet on diamonds," Lavinia said.

** Surprisingly, little Rue comes up with a seven. I don't know what she showed the judges, but she's so tiny it must have been impressive.**

**District 12 comes up last, as usual.**

"This is soooo stereotypical," Johanna moans. "God, this is what I think will happen: you think you'll get a terrible score, magically, however, this dirty peasant Tribute will get a high score. Yay. And then we'll all live happily ever after. The end."

"I'll have to agree with her on that," Lavinia said. "And the thing is, that's _exactly_ what happens."

"DON'T SPOIL THE STORY!" Effie hissed.

** Peeta pulls an eight so at least a couple of the Gamemakers must have been watching him. I dig my fingernails into my palms as my face comes up, expecting the worst. Then they're flashing the number eleven on the screen.**

**Eleven!**

"My District," Rue said.**  
**

**Effie Trinket lets out a squeal,**

"Which is what she's always doing," Katniss said.

** and everybody is slapping me on the back and cheering and congratulating me. But it doesn't seem real.**

**"There must be a mistake. How . . . how could that happen?" I ask Haymitch.**

**"Guess they liked your temper," he says. "They've got a show to put on. They need some players with some heat."**

**"Katniss, the girl who was on fire," says Cinna and gives me a hug.**

"Aww..." Haymitch said. "How absolutely is _sweet_ of him, honey-bunches of oats."

"Cheerio-Loops!" Prim muttered.

Katniss gritted her teeth as she restrained from hitting Haymitch in the face.

** "Oh, wait until you see your interview dress." **

**"More flames?" I ask. **

**"Of a sort," he says mischievously.**

**Peeta and I congratulate each other, another awkward moment.**

"Awkward, awkward, awkward," mimicked Rhea.

** We've both done well, but what does that mean for the other? I escape to my room as quickly as possible and burrow down under the covers. The stress of the day, particularly the crying, has worn me out.**

"Could crying be a job?" Prim asked. "If you can get tired from it...It could be labor, technically."

"Unless you're that girl from YuYu Hakusho that can cry diamonds, no." Gale gave a quirky little smile. "Imagine the profit you could get from her!"

"Otaku..." Peeta muttered.

** I drift off, reprieved, relieved, and with the number eleven still flashing behind my eyelids.**

**At dawn, I lie in bed for a while, watching the sun come up on a beautiful morning. It's Sunday.**

"And _I_ had to go to church," Rue sighed.

** A day off at home. I wonder if Gale is in the woods yet.**

"No, I was too busy thinking about you," Gale admitted.

"Aww, how sweet of you!" Katniss said, then she hugged him. Gale hugged her back while Peeta smothered in anger.

** Usually we devote all of Sunday to stocking up for the week. Rising early, hunting and gathering, then trading at the Hob.**

"Hob, hob-"

"STOP IT!" Lavinia shrieks. "_Smettila! Smettila!_"

** I think of Gale without me. Both of us can hunt alone, but we're better as a pair. Particularly if we're trying for bigger game. But also in the littler things, having a partner lightened the load, could even make the arduous task of filling my family's table enjoyable.**

**I had been struggling along on my own for about six months when I first ran into Gale in the woods. It was a Sunday in October, the air cool and pungent with dying things.**

"Oh joy," Johanna said sarcastically. "A beautiful beginning to a beautiful flashback. Finnick, don't have anyone comment as you speed through this, 'kay? Don't make listening to Katniss's stinky story even worse."

"Okay, Johanna, okay."

** I'd spent the morning competing with the squirrels for nuts and the slightly warmer afternoon wading in shallow ponds harvesting katniss. The only meat I'd shot was a squirrel that had practically run over my toes in its quest for acorns, but the animals would still be afoot when the snow buried my other food sources. Having strayed farther afield than usual, I was hurrying back home, lugging my burlap sacks when I came across a dead rabbit. It was hanging by its neck in a thin wire a foot above my head. About fifteen yards away was another. I recognized the twitch-up snares because my father had used them. When the prey is caught, it's yanked into the air out of the reach of other hungry animals. I'd been trying to use snares all summer with no success, so I couldn't help dropping my sacks to examine this one. My fingers were just on the wire above one of the rabbits when a voice rang out. "That's dangerous."**

**I jumped back several feet as Gale materialized from behind a tree. He must have been watching me the whole time. He was only fourteen, but he cleared six feet and was as good as an adult to me. I'd seen him around the Seam and at school. And one other time. He'd lost his father in the same blast that killed mine. In January, I'd stood by while he received his medal of valor in the Justice Building, another oldest child with no father. I remembered his two little brothers clutching his mother, a woman whose swollen belly announced she was just days away from giving birth.**

**"What's your name?" he said, coming over and disengaging the rabbit from the snare. He had another three hanging from his belt.**

**"Katniss," I said, barely audible.**

**"Well, Catnip, stealing's punishable by death, or hadn't you heard?" he said.**

**"Katniss," I said louder. "And I wasn't stealing it. I just wanted to look at your snare. Mine never catch anything."**

**He scowled at me, not convinced. "So where'd you get the squirrel?"**

**"I shot it." I pulled my bow off my shoulder. I was still using the small version my father had made me, but I'd been practicing with the full-size one when I could. I was hoping that by spring I might be able to bring down some bigger game.**

**Gale's eyes fastened on the bow. "Can I see that?" I handed it over. "Just remember, stealing's punishable by death."**

**That was the first time I ever saw him smile. It transformed him from someone menacing to someone you wished you knew. But it took several months before I returned that smile.**

**We talked hunting then. I told him I might be able to get him a bow if he had something to trade. Not food. I wanted knowledge. I wanted to set my own snares that caught a belt of fat rabbits in one day. He agreed something might be worked out. As the seasons went by, we grudgingly began to share our knowledge, our weapons, our secret places that were thick with wild plums or turkeys. He taught me snares and fishing. I showed him what plants to eat and eventually gave him one of our precious bows. And then one day, without either of us saying it, we became a team. Dividing the work and the spoils. Making sure that both our families had food.**

**Gale gave me a sense of security I'd lacked since my father's death. His companionship replaced the long solitary hours in the woods. I became a much better hunter when I didn't have to look over my shoulder constantly, when someone was watching my back. But he turned into so much more than a hunting partner. He became my confidante, someone with whom I could share thoughts I could never voice inside the fence. In exchange, he trusted me with his. Being out in the woods with Gale . . . sometimes I was actually happy.**

Gale blushed and finally blurted out, "I was happy too!" Johanna glared at him but let it pass.**  
**

**I call him my friend, but in the last year it's seemed too casual a word for what Gale is to me.**

Gale gave a smug look at Peeta who was smoldering.

** A pang of longing shoots through my chest. If only he was with me now! But, of course, I don't want that. I don't want him in the arena where he'd be dead in a few days. I just . . . I just miss him. And I hate being so alone. Does he miss me? He must.**

Gale gave a content smile as he heard the rush of compliments. Katniss smiled reassuringly at Peeta but he was a mess, wailing at the top of his lungs. Refusing to sit on the couch, he sobbed in a corner.

"Baby," Lavinia said.

**I think of the eleven flashing under my name last night. I know exactly what he'd say to me. "Well, there's some room for improvement there."**

"You know me too well," Gale said then put his arms around Katniss protectively.

** And then he'd give me a smile and I'd return it without hesitating now.**

**I can't help comparing what I have with Gale to what I'm pretending to have with Peeta. How I never question Gale's motives while I do nothing but doubt the latter's. It's not a fair comparison really. Gale and I were thrown together by a mutual need to survive. Peeta and I know the other's survival means our own death. How do you sidestep that?**

"You're reasoning with yourself..." Peeta whispered. "It's like telling yourself to not forget me, Katniss, you're...you're amazing."

"No, you're just not right in the head," Katniss said.

**Effie's knocking at the door, reminding me there's another "big, big, big day!" ahead.**

"When is there not a 'big, big, big day'?" Johanna asked.

"When it's a small, small, small day," Effie replied matter of factly.

** Tomorrow night will be our televised interviews. I guess the whole team will have their hands full readying us for that.**

**I get up and take a quick shower, being a bit more careful about the buttons I hit,**

"Good, dear, I was worrying about having to lecture you about the buttons if you did not handle it professionally," Effie said. Katniss whew'ed in relief. She had avoided one of Effie's long, tedious speeches.

** and head down to the dining room. Peeta, Effie, and Haymitch are huddled around the table talking in hushed voices. That seems odd, but hunger wins out over curiosity and I load up my plate with breakfast before I join them.**

"Pig," Rue and Johanna said at the same time.

"Mind you, I lived in District 12!" Katniss defended herself.

**The stew's made with tender chunks of lamb and dried plums today. Perfect on the bed of wild rice.**

"We Capitolians call this Lamb Plate," Effie explained.

"Not very creative, are you guys?" Johanna said.

** I've shoveled about halfway through the mound when I realize no one's talking. I take a big gulp of orange juice and wipe my mouth. "So, what's going on? You're coaching us on interviews today, right?"**

**"That's right," says Haymitch.**

**"You don't have to wait until I'm done. I can listen and eat at the same time," I say.**

"Although not very well," Gale mumbled. "I remember once during lunch...I said I fell in the pool once-you misinterpreted into 'YOU FELL INTO POO?'"

"Fail," Rhea yelled into the intercom.

**"Well, there's been a change of plans. About our current approach," says Haymitch.**

**"What's that?" I ask. I'm not sure what our current approach is. Trying to appear mediocre in front of the other tributes is the last bit of strategy I remember.**

**Haymitch shrugs. "Peeta has asked to be coached separately."**

"DUHN-DUHN-DUUUUUUUHN!" Finnick said epically. "Well, then, that's the end of this chapter." He closed his book and dropped it onto the table with a thud.

"Finally," Johanna said. She held her throat and pretended to gag. "That was the _worst_ hour of my life. I hate having to listen to Katniss's stupid, repetitive cliche thoughts."

"It's not my fault I think that way. Gale has plagued me with his thoughts," Katniss blamed.

"Hey! So not fair, it's probably that lump of poo Peeta!" Gale pointed at Peeta accusingly.

"...Me? I've known her for, what, 2 years? I don't think that's enough time for me to infect her with my stupidness." Peeta crossed his arms and humph'ed.

"So you admit it?" Prim asked. "That you have contagious stupidity?"

"Perhaps that was not his point..." Rue said.

Lavinia gave a small smile as she began to disappear into the air. "Looks like my time is up, someone's going to come here soon to replace me." She looked at Katniss with tears in her eyes. "I'll miss you, sis."

"You too, Lavinia." The two half-sisters hugged each other and then Lavinia waved good-bye. Then she vanished.

"I'm gonna miss-HAYMITCH?"

"Here comes Mister MacNeil  
The fine shape that he is in  
There is no telling which way he'll feel  
After his twister around the beinn

Raisin' the jar an raisin' hell  
There's plenty of stories that they will tell  
Some are born of true detail  
And some are purely fiction.

Look up yonder it's old MacPheee  
he`s having a few, he can hardly see  
Wrapped his buggy around a tree  
Someone call the Mounties

Raisin' the jar and raisin' hell  
There's plenty of stories that they will tell  
Some are born of true detail  
And some are purely fiction

Up spoke fine young Cameron  
At the dance got a fearful hammerin'  
Today I'll stutter and stammer in  
There'll be hell to pay come Saturday

Raisin' the jar and raisin' hell  
There's plenty of stories that they will tell

Some are born of true detail  
And some are purely fiction

There they stand by the door  
Selling bosch by the score  
Asking you to buy some more- Along the shores of 'Cocomagh

Raisin' the jar and raisin' hell  
There's plenty of stories that they will tell  
Some are born of true detail  
And Some are purely fiction

I'll go home, I'll go home  
Full of the devil and full of the rum

I'll go home, I'll go home  
We'll all go home in the morning

I'll go home, I'll go home  
Full of the devil and full of the rum

I'll go home, I'll go home  
We'll all go home in the morniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!" Haymitch and Effie screamed the last part as everyone clapped their hands over their ears.

"And _that_ was the Mull River Shuffle," Haymitch said.

* * *

**That's the end of this chapter. I'm sorry for not updating for forever. I got banned/grounded but I'm back again! Mull River Shuffle~!**


	10. Chapter 9: Shaltananananananazar

**Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you're having a great holiday. I'm off tomorrow for winter break so I might actually get another chapter in time for Christmas! Cross your fingers!  
**

**I'm so sorry this last chapter took forever to get put up. I've been busy with school.  
**

**PLEASE REVIEW! I love getting those warm reviews...Or unwarm. Anyway, I want to reply to you guys quickly and reviewing is a good way for me to contact with you momentarily. Plus, I might even go look at your stories!**

**I also cleaned up this story a bit. I deleted all the fillers. I want to make this as clean and readable as possible!  
**

**Aah...Well...I found out when I rereading/checking/editing the last chapter, that Lavinia and Johanna are a heck of a lot alike. Whatevs. **

**Because I cannot EVER remember the characters that are in here I have to write them down...**

Katniss Everdeen  
Gale Hawthorne  
Peeta Mellark  
Effie Trinket  
Haymitch Abernathy  
Lavinia Faella-Abernathy  
Primrose Everdeen  
Rue Everdeen

**Nommy nommy nom. Off hiatus...Oh, by the by, I'm rewriting the first few chapters, so...stay tuned! They are rather horrible.  
**

**'Kay, on with the chapter...**

* * *

HEADLINES: With Haymitch and Effie ending the last chapter with a (literally) smashing exit. We not turn back to our beloved friends. Although something's not right. Let's welcome a new friend...serious epicness.

~Daily Millie

Haymitch and Effie collapse on the floor in a big heap. Both of them are drooling and dazy-eyed. It was to be expected, but when Johanna fell down in the same manner, that's when things begin to get a bit...

"By the power of Shaltananananananazar, I curse you with the magic of Aledin!" she roars. Her finger jabs menacingly into Katniss who wails and jumps up.

"The heck?" Katniss exclaims, rubbing her leg, which was poked. Hard.

"Who the heck is 'Shaltanananananazar'?" Gale asks. Johanna's eyes narrowed into slits and her hands balled up into deadly fists.

"Thou art?" she screams, her pitch going up a notch. "How do you know of this 'Shaltanananananazar'? Is he attempting to kill Queen Babababababalosaquionte?"

"I know of none!" he squeals, closing his eyes and backing away. "But you should...right...?"

Johanna gives a haughty, condescending laugh. "I am Princess Meriel, illegimate daughter of King Shaltananananananazar and Wise Woman Fay-ay-ay-ay-ay," she says. "I know of no 'Shaltanananananazar'."

Rue whispers quietly into Gale's ear, "The one she knows has six 'na's in it. Yours has five. That's why she is confused." Gale gives a slow nod.

"This is just great!" Katniss moans. "Some illegimate daughter of a World of Warcraft game has come to annihilate us all by talking about her father who has an insane name!"

Johanna growls, a deep rumble in her throat. "You shall not insult Father," she hisses. She leaps forward. Suddenly, a flash of red dashed in front of Katniss, blocking her from the enraged princess. An excruciatingly obnoxious smell of oranges filled the room.

Katniss snarled, recognizing the scent. "Snow..."

"I'm surprised you remember me, my dear fibble-fabble," his brusque British-French-German voice says. His lips curl into a Cheshire smile.

"Of course," Katniss says, trying to hold herself back from taking a bite into his leg. "I can recognize your style anywhere."

He cackles. A swift movement from his plump, pale hand snaps across the air in front of her. Katniss jumps back in shock. Johanna kneels down in response.

"My Lord!" Johanna exclaims, her head facing the ground and her stance becoming submissive. Despite the fact that no one could see her face, they all suspected it had taken on a joyous expression due to the happy note in her voice.

"Ah, yes, my faithful knightess, Meriel," Snow replies, his grin curling back even further, creating a warped expression. "How fare thee?"

"Fare thee well, my Lord! How dost thee cometh apart from thy fair Babababababalosaquionte?" Johanna says, looking up from her kneeling position. A sparkly look in her eye and a strange accent overtook her.

"Fare she well," Snow replies. He looks slightly annoyed with her questioning, but she either doesn't care or doesn't notice. He takes a look at the confused people gawking at him. "Well, carry on!"

* * *

**"Betrayal. That's the first thing I feel, which is ludicrous. For there to be betrayal, there would have had to been trust first. Between Peeta and me.**

"Very odd communication of trust you got there, darling," Snow said while cackling.

"Indeed, My Lord," Johanna agreed instantly. "It is nothing like the love we—"

"Johanna, how many times do I have to tell you?" Snow snapped. "I do not love you."

Johanna's face slashed with pain for a second or two hardened into one of pure loyalty. "Of course, my Lord."

**And trust has not been part of the agreement. We're tributes. But the boy who risked a beating to give me bread, the one who steadied me in the chariot, who covered for me with the redheaded Avox girl, who insisted Haymitch know my hunting skills . . . was there some part of me that couldn't help trusting him?**

Johanna sneered. "What an unfaithful, confused, stupid little maiden," she scoffed. "If thou trusteth him, thou trust. Thy mind shan't wander."

"Johanna, shut up," Snow said, exasperated.

**On the other hand, I'm relieved that we can stop the pretense of being friends.**

"You traitor!" Johanna and Peeta shriek at the same time.

"How thou abandon thy lover?" Johanna screamed at her. "Foolish fools that foolishly fool with fools that foolishly dream of foolish fools!"

Peeta hesitated. "...What she said!"**  
**

** Obviously, whatever thin connection we'd foolishly formed has been severed. And high time, too. The Games begin in two days, and trust will only be a weakness. Whatever triggered Peeta's decision — and I suspect it had to do with my outperforming him in training — I should be nothing but grateful for it. Maybe he's finally accepted the fact that the sooner we openly acknowledge that we are enemies, the better.**

"You are so cold," Peeta said, sulking.

Prim scowled. "How old are you—two? Grow up!"

"You're the last person I want to hear it from, shrimp!" Peeta said, disdainfully.

**"Good," I say. "So what's the schedule?"**

**"You'll each have four hours with Effie for presentation and four with me for content," says Haymitch. "You start with Effie, Katniss."**

**I can't imagine what Effie will have to teach me that could take four hours, but she's got me working down to the last minute. We go to my rooms and she puts me in a full-length gown and high-heeled shoes, not the ones I'll he wearing for the actual interview, and instructs me on walking. The shoes are the worst part. I've never worn high heels and can't get used to essentially wobbling around on the balls of my feet. But Effie runs around in them full-time, and I'm determined that if she can do it, so can I.**

"That didn't go as well as I planned," a shrill but wobbly voice says in the back. "Katniss walks in high-heels as well as a goat can."

Katniss grits her teeth.

**The dress poses another problem. It keeps tangling around my shoes so, of course, I hitch it up, and then Effie swoops down on me like a hawk, smacking my hands and yelling, "Not above the ankle!" When I finally conquer walking, there's still sitting, posture — apparently I have a tendency to duck my head — **

"It comes from the District," Gale explains, "and hunting."

"And the fact that she can't last being polite or formal if her life depended on it," Snow says jokingly.

"That too," Gale chuckles.

**eye contact, hand gestures, and smiling. Smiling is mostly about smiling more. Effie makes me say a hundred banal phrases starting with a smile, while smiling, or ending with a smile. By lunch, the muscles in my cheeks are twitching from overuse.**

"Probably because you _never_ use them," Haymitch says, chuckling with Snow.

"I use them!" Katniss whined. Then she thought for a moment. "I just never have reason to smile. Starving then hunting cute little forest animals then volunteering for my dear little sister to go into some suicidal gladiator game twice. And then I still have to be the leader of a rebellion!"

"What's not to smile about that?" Prim asks, a grin playing at her lips.

**"Well, that's the best I can do," Effie says with a sigh. "Just remember, Katniss, you want the audience to like you."**

"Frankly, I find the fact that anyone would like _her_ to be out of their fiddly-bupkins," Snow remarked.

"Not that they aren't out of their mind already," Haymitch said, pointing to Prim, Rue, Gale, and Peeta.

**"And you don't think they will?" I ask.**

**"Not if you glare at them the entire time.**

"Was I?" Katniss asked, generally surprised at the thought. "I thought I did kinda good."

Haymitch a disdainful little _pfft_ and laughed scornfully, "_Please_, you were as sweet as lump of poo could be. I could feel you burning holes into Effie's Jimmy Choo Jr.'s when she passed by."

"So _thaaaaaat's_ what I was feeling..." Effie mused.

**Why don't you save that for the arena? Instead, think of yourself among friends," says Effie.**

**"They're betting on how long I'll live!" I burst out. "They're not my friends!"**

**"Well, try and pretend!" snaps Effie. Then she composes herself and beams at me. "See, like this. I'm smiling at you even though you're aggravating me."**

"I'm surprised that you know what 'aggravating' means, Effie," Rue says, patting the pink woman on the back.

"What's 'aggravating'?" Effie asks, completely confused.

"...Never mind."

**"Yes, it feels very convincing," I say. "I'm going to eat." I kick off my heels and stomp down to the dining room, hiking my skirt up to my thighs.**

"Very lady-like, indeed," remarks Snow. Johanna nods stoically next to him.**  
**

**Peeta and Haymitch seem in pretty good moods, so I'm thinking the content session should be an improvement over the morning. I couldn't be more wrong. After lunch, Haymitch takes me into the sitting room, directs me to the couch, and then just frowns at me for a while.**

"Oh. Haymitch just smiled at me for a while," Peeta says. "He must really not like you, Katniss."

"No, really?" Katniss and Haymitch both say sarcastically.

**"What?" I finally ask.**

**"I'm trying to figure out what to do with you," he says. "How we're going to present you. Are you going to be charming? Aloof? Fierce? So far, you're shining like a star. You volunteered to save your sister. Cinna made you look unforgettable. You've got the top training score. People are intrigued, but no one knows who you are. The impression you make tomorrow will decide exactly what I can get you in terms of sponsors," says Haymitch.**

"How poetic you speak, Father," a slick, wry voice comes from the back. It sounded like a female Haymitch.

"How lovely you think so, daughter," Haymitch growls. "At least I haven't been napping like an obnoxious cat the whole session."

Lavinia's hands flew into her pocket and she pulled out a pair of scissors, inches away from Haymitch's neck. Johanna retaliatex quickly, covering Snow with a parachute and emergency supplies and a life boat. Everybody gaspx, Effie being the loudest.

"You may be my blood father, but I believe you not to be anyhow unlike any one of those Capitalians. I will kill you when it is necessary." Lavinia puts her small pair of scissors back into her pocket and steps back. She poofs away.

"Somebody's got her daddy's genes..." Rue says, wagging her finger at Haymitch.

**Having watched the tribute interviews all my life, I know there's truth to what he's saying. If you appeal to the crowd, either by being humorous or brutal or eccentric, you gain favor.**

**"What's Peeta's approach? Or am I not allowed to ask?" I say.**

**"Likable. He has a sort of self-deprecating humor naturally," says Haymitch. "Whereas when you open your mouth, you come across more as sullen and hostile."**

"Like a bull that can only see red," Haymitch clarifies.**  
**

**"I do not!" I say.**

**"Please. I don't know where you pulled that cheery, wavy girl on the chariot from,**

"It was be_cause_ I was trying to save my _butt!_"

"You coulda saved your butt here, too," Prim points out none-too-gently.

**but I haven't seen her before or since," says Haymitch.**

**"And you've given me so many reasons to be cheery," I counter.**

**"But you don't have to please me. I'm not going to sponsor you. So pretend I'm the audience," says Haymitch. "Delight me."**

**"Fine!" I snarl.**

"How increasingly flippy-woofen," Snow says with Johanna, once again, nodding with him.

**Haymitch takes the role of the interviewer and I try to answer his questions in a winning fashion. But I can't. I'm too angry with Haymitch for what he said and that I even have to answer the questions. All I can think is how unjust the whole thing is, the Hunger Games. Why am I hopping around like some trained dog trying to please people I hate?**

"The reason why that trained dog hops around," Peeta says.

"And what is that?" Katniss asks.

"...Uh..."

**The longer the interview goes on, the more my fury seems to rise to the surface, until I'm literally spitting out answers at him.**

**"All right, enough," he says. "We've got to find another angle. Not only are you hostile, I don't know anything about you. I've asked you fifty questions and still have no sense of your life, your family, what you care about.**

"She likes pumpkin pie," Gale says helpfully. Haymitch shoots him a look.

"Yes, of course, the Capitol wants to know that the Girl on Fire likes pumpkin pie," Haymitch says snarkily.

"Hey!" says Gale indignantly, "I just wanted to be helpful."

**They want to know about you, Katniss."**

**"But I don't want them to! They're already taking my future! They can't have the things that mattered to me in the past!" I say.**

**"Then lie! Make something up!" says Haymitch.**

**"I'm not good at lying," I say.**

**"Well, you better learn fast. You've got about as much charm as a dead slug," says Haymitch.**

"Eh," Katniss says quietly, looking downward.

"Oh, honey bunches of cheerios," Haymitch says, layering sweetness upon sweetness onto his voice, "it's okay. On the plus side, Effie likes slugs."

"She _is_ a slug!" Katniss says indignantly, pointing at Effie who was now inching across the floor blubbering helplessly.

**Ouch. That hurts. Even Haymitch must know he's been too harsh because his voice softens. "Here's an idea. Try acting humble."**

**"Humble," I echo.**

"Humble, humble, humble..." Rhea murmurs over the intercom.

**"That you can't believe a little girl from District Twelve has done this well. The whole thing's been more than you ever could have dreamed of. Talk about Cinna's clothes. How nice the people are. How the city amazes you. If you won't talk about yourself, at least compliment the audience. Just keep turning it back around, all right. Gush."**

"Gushing is so fop the fiddle with her," Snow says, cackling.

Haymitch cackles with, "Very obviously."

**The next hours are agonizing. At once, it's clear I cannot gush. We try me playing cocky, but I just don't have the arrogance.**

"You have it, just not enough," Haymitch explains. "If we did that one, it would seem weak."

"Nice to know," Katniss spits, crossing her arms angrily.

**Apparently, I'm too "vulnerable" for ferocity.**

"Yes, you're like a teenage mutant ninja turtle!" Rue says excitedly.

"A whata-what?" Gale asks, confused.

"A teenage mutant ninja turtle!" Prim says, grasping Rue's hands, the both of them jumping up and down. "Katniss can be Leo!"

"No, no, no! Katniss is Raph!"

"Leo!"

"Raph!"

"Leo!"

"Raph!"

"Le—"

"She can be Mike!" Effie squeals.

"YAAAAY!" all three of them exclaim, jumping up and down.

**I'm not witty. Funny. Sexy. Or mysterious.**

"But you are Mike!" Effie squeals.

**By the end of the session, I am no one at all.**

"Except Mike," Effie says.

**Haymitch started drinking somewhere around witty, and a nasty edge has crept into his voice. "I give up, sweetheart. Just answer the questions and try not to let the audience see how openly you despise them."**

"...And are Mike," says Effie.**  
**

**I have dinner that night in my room, ordering an outrageous number of delicacies, eating myself sick, and then taking out my anger at Haymitch, at the Hunger Games, at every living being in the Capitol by smashing dishes around my room.**

"So un-Mike-ish, tsk, tsk," Effie scoffx.

**When the girl with the red hair comes in to turn down my bed, her eyes widen at the mess. "Just leave it!" I yell at her. "Just leave it alone!"**

**I hate her, too, with her knowing reproachful eyes that call me a coward, a monster, a puppet of the Capitol,**

"And Mike—" Effie adds before being interrupted by Katniss.

"Stop it!" she yells.

**both now and then. For her, justice must finally be happening. At least my death will help pay for the life of the boy in the woods.**

**But instead of fleeing the room, the girl closes the door behind her and goes to the bathroom. She comes back with a damp cloth and wipes my face gently then cleans the blood from a broken plate off my hands. Why is she doing this? Why am I letting her?**

**"I should have tried to save you," I whisper.**

"Awkward~" Gale sings quietly. Katniss whacks him in the back.**  
**

**She shakes her head. Does this mean we were right to stand by? That she has forgiven me?**

**"No, it was wrong," I say.**

**She taps her lips with her fingers then points to my chest. I think she means that I would just have ended up an Avox, too. Probably would have. An Avox or dead.**

"Ouch, wouldn't want that," Gale says.

"Imagine, Katniss as an Avox. Wonder what that would be like..." Peeta muses.

Everyone shudders.**  
**

**I spend the next hour helping the redheaded girl clean the room. When all the garbage has been dropped down a disposal and the food cleaned away, she turns down my bed. I crawl in between the sheets like a five-year-old and let her tuck me in. Then she goes.**

"Incredibly dondly," Snow sneers.

"No one asked."

**I want her to stay until I fall asleep. To be there when I wake up. I want the protection of this girl, even though she never had mine.**

**In the morning, it's not the girl but my prep team who are hanging over me. My lessons with Effie and Haymitch are over. This day belongs to Cinna. He's my last hope.**

"Little drastic, seeing how he acts like a gay—"

"You will not finish that sentence," Katniss says, covering Prim's ears.

**Maybe he can make me look so wonderful, no one will care what comes out of my mouth.**

"Not even Cinna could do _that_," Haymitch says.

"Well he did, and that's that," Katniss harrumphs.

"DON'T SPOIL THE STORY!" Effie shushed.

**The team works on me until late afternoon, turning my skin to glowing satin, stenciling patterns on my arms, painting flame designs on my twenty perfect nails. Then Venia goes to work on my hair, weaving strands of red into a pattern that begins at my left ear, wraps around my head, and then falls in one braid down my right shoulder. They erase my face with a layer of pale makeup and draw my features back out. Huge dark eyes, full red lips, lashes that throw off bits of light when I blink. Finally, they cover my entire body in a powder that makes me shimmer in gold dust.**

"So, in other words, they make you look like the caterpillar?" Snow asked.

Needless to say, he got whacked.

**Then Cinna enters with what I assume is my dress,**

"What else would it be—a jumpsuit?" Prim asks.

"Actually..." Effie and Rue began.

"No. We do _not _need another story about some so-and-so from the past who did wear a jumpsuit."

"Actually, I just wanted to say I'm hungry. Does anyone have anything edible?" Effie beams.

"..."

**but I can't really see it because it's covered. "Close your eyes," he orders.**

**I can feel the silken inside as they slip it down over my naked body, then the weight. It must be forty pounds.**

"That's practically as heavy as me!" Prim says.

"No, heavier. Last time I checked, you were 38 lb," Katniss says.

**I clutch Octavia's hand as I blindly step into my shoes, glad to find they are at least two inches lower than the pair Effie had me practice in. **

"You can never have too much practice for Jimmy Choos."

"I thought they were Jr's?" Gale asks.

"You would know," Peeta scoffs.

**There's some adjusting and fidgeting. Then silence.**

"Dun-dun-duuuuuun!" Rhea says ominously.

**"Can I open my eyes?" I ask.**

**"Yes," says Cinna. "Open them."**

**The creature **

"Glad to know you think of yourself that way," says Lavinia, waking from her sleep.

**standing before me in the full-length mirror has come from another world. Where skin shimmers and eyes flash and apparently they make their clothes from jewels. Because my dress, oh, my dress is entirely covered in reflective precious gems, red and yellow and white with bits of blue that accent the tips of the flame design. The slightest movement gives the impression I am engulfed in tongues of fire.**

**I am not pretty. I am not beautiful. I am as radiant as the sun.**

"I don't think I'd prefer the latter," Snow says hesitantly.

**For a while, we all just stare at me. **

"Not at all conceited," Haymitch laughs.

"Trust me, you stared too when you saw the dress." Katniss looks at him expectantly as if he would compliment her right on the spot. He disappoints her by a long shot.

"Nope, not me. I was too drunk to care." Haymitch cackles.

**"Oh, Cinna," I finally whisper. "Thank you."**

**"Twirl for me," he says. I hold out my arms and spin in a circle. The prep team screams in admiration.**

"They're always screaming about one thing or another," Katniss muses.

"At least they have something to scream about," Gale says. "Screaming mostly contains blood and terror for District 12."

"True."

**Cinna dismisses the team and has me move around in the dress and shoes, which are infinitely more manageable than Effie's.**

"Which means the practice helped!" Effie exclaims.

"No, it means the shoes are infinitely more manageable," Katniss says.

**The dress hangs in such a way that I don't have to lift the skirt when I walk, leaving me with one less thing to worry about.**

"Are you always this...methodical?" Peeta asks.

"Pretty much, yeah," Katniss replies.**  
**

**"So, all ready for the interview then?" asks Cinna. I can see by his expression that he's been talking to Haymitch. That he knows how dreadful I am.**

"That is a fragment," Gale suddenly says.

"What?"

"'That he knows how dreadful I am'. That's a fragment."

Katniss sighed. "No one cares, Gale, no one cares."**  
**

**"I'm awful. Haymitch called me a dead slug. No matter what we tried, I couldn't do it. I just can't be one of those people he wants me to be," I say.**

**Cinna thinks about this a moment. "Why don't you just be yourself?"**

"When you're a 'dead slug', I don't think that's an option, though," Prim says.

"You be quiet," Katniss says, narrowing her eyes.**  
**

**"Myself? That's no good, either.**

"See? You said so yourself!" Prim insists.

"But I never said anything that involved a dead slug!" Katniss says.

"You might as well have," Prim says with a huff.

"What...?"**  
**

** Haymitch says I'm sullen and hostile," I say.**

"You are," Snow says.

"Terribly so," agrees Haymitch.**  
**

**"Well, you are . . . around Haymitch,"**

"And me," says Snow.

"And me," says Rhea.

"And me," says Prim.

"And me," says Peeta.

"And me," says Effie.

"And me," says Arthur.

"Wait, who's Arthur?" Katniss says.**  
**

** says Cinna with a grin. "I don't find you so. **

"...says the gay guy," Haymitch says.

"Don't talk about Cinna that way!" Katniss said indignantly. Her hands clamp over Prim's ears, making Prim wriggle from her older sister's grasp.

"You were there when he and your mom—"

"My mom happens to be _female_, so no, that does not count as...that."

"That is, unless, your mom is a male in actuality," Gale says. Katniss bares her teeth at him. He backs away. "I'm just saying!"

**The prep team adores you. You even won over the Gamemakers. And as for the citizens of the Capitol, well, they can't stop talking about you. No one can help but admire your spirit."**

"Notice how he didn't say 'beauty' or 'personality'," Haymitch says with a smudge of drunkness.

**My spirit. This is a new thought.**

"What? 'Cause you don't have one?" Snow asks innocently.

"You shut up, you prune," Katniss snarls.

"I'm more of an orange, thanks."**  
**

** I'm not sure exactly what it means, but it suggests I'm a fighter. In a sort of brave way. **

"Wow, a brave fighter, how amazing," Haymitch says sarcastically.**  
**

**It's not as if I'm never friendly. Okay, maybe I don't go around loving everybody I meet, maybe my smiles are hard to come by, but I do care for some people.**

"You should consider showing it sometimes," Gale says, "it kind of helps."

**Cinna takes my icy hands in his warm ones. "Suppose, when you answer the questions, you think you're addressing a friend back home. Who would your best friend be?" asks Cinna.**

**"Gale," I say instantly.**

"Daaawww..." Snow coos.

"Shut up, you brainless coot," Gale says, flushing.

**"Only it doesn't make sense, Cinna. I would never be telling Gale those things about me. He already knows them."**

**"What about me? Could you think of me as a friend?" asks Cinna.**

**Of all the people I've met since I left home, Cinna is by far my favorite. I liked him right off and he hasn't disappointed me yet.**

"I like your choice of words," Prim says. "'Yet'." She gives a small smile.

**"I think so, but —"**

**"I'll be sitting on the main platform with the other stylists. You'll be able to look right at me. When you're asked a question, find me, and answer it as honestly as possible," says Cinna.**

**"Even if what I think is horrible?" I ask. Because it might be, really.**

"And usually it is," Gale says, grumbling.**  
**

**"Especially if what you think is horrible," says Cinna. "You'll try it?"**

**I nod. It's a plan. Or at least a straw to grasp at.**

"TROLOLOL!" Snow cackles.

"What the flip?"

**Too soon it's time to go. The interviews take place on a stage constructed in front of the Training Center. Once I leave my room, it will be only minutes until I'm in front of the crowd, the cameras, all of Panem.**

"'Panem' is such a funny word, don't you agree?" Prim asks quietly, her delicate fingers twirling a piece of her hair.

"The name Panem derives from the Latin phrase _panem et circenses_, which literally translates into 'bread and circuses'. The phrase itself is 'used to describe entertainment used to distract public attention from more important matters'," Peeta says instantly, reciting out of memory.

"And you call me a geek!" Gale laughs.

**As Cinna turns the doorknob, I stop his hand. "Cinna . . ." I'm completely overcome with stage fright.**

**"Remember, they already love you," he says gently. "Just be yourself."**

"Yes, Katniss!" Haymitch mockingly squeals. "Just be the dead slug you are! Release it! Embrace it!"

"Shut your face, Haymitch," Katniss groans.**  
**

**We meet up with the rest of the District 12 crowd at the elevator. Portia and her gang have been hard at work. Peeta looks striking in a black suit with flame accents. While we look well together, it's a relief not to be dressed identically.**

"They wanted to go with a rebellious Hansel and Gretel, but I stopped them," Haymitch says.

"Surprisingly so, I thank you for that generous move," Katniss thanks him, gratefully.

"Only because they wanted to dress me up as well," Haymitch explains, his face darkening at the memories.**  
**

** Haymitch and Effie are all fancied up for the occasion.**

"...Unfortunately, I never got to see you in that Hansel costume, eh?" Peeta chuckles, elbowing Haymitch playfully.

Haymitch elbows back, not so playfully.**  
**

** I avoid Haymitch, but accept Effie's compliments. Effie can be tiresome and clueless, but she's not destructive like Haymitch.**

"Oh, thank you!" Effie squeaks. She jumps up and down, slightly too hard, making the table topple over. "Oops."

"Not destructive, hmm?" Haymitch mocks.

**When the elevator opens, the other tributes are being lined up to take the stage. All twenty-four of us sit in a big arc throughout the interviews. I'll be last, or second to last since the girl tribute precedes the boy from each district. How I wish I could be first and get the whole thing out of the way! Now I'll have to listen to how witty, funny, humble, fierce, and charming everybody else is before I go up.**

"Usually, it's because they are," Snow remarks in a quiet voice.

Katniss growls, Johanna growls back.**  
**

** Plus, the audience will start to get bored, just as the Gamemakers did. And I can't exactly shoot an arrow into the crowd to get their attention.**

"Or you could and then have it flying back at you because there's a new force field up, now," Snow says.

"Funny, I've never actually thought about that," Haymitch murmurs thoughtfully. "They probably would do that, just in case we have a fiery little whippersnapper up, huh?"

"Actually, the Thirty-Fourth Hunger Games's District 7's tribute threw a grenade into the crowd, effectively killing three people and severely injuring ten others," Prim replies.

Haymitch, amused, asks, "What happened to the girl?"

"She was given several body-depleting hormone injections through out the body and was given a horribly bloody death in the Arena," Rue says.

Haymitch grimaces before saying, "Pleasant."

**Right before we parade onto the stage, Haymitch comes up behind Peeta and me and growls, "Remember, you're still a happy pair. So act like it."**

"It's very difficult acting like we're in the Sound of Music when we're going to be entered into bloody gladiatorial arena in a few days," Katniss mutters.

"It's also difficult chugging down ten bottles of whiskey a day," Haymitch says. "Yet I still do it."

"That was a really bad point," Prim says, frowning.

**What? I thought we abandoned that when Peeta asked for separate coaching. But I guess that was a private, not a public thing. Anyway, there's not much chance for interaction now, as we walk single-file to our seats and take our places.**

**Just stepping on the stage makes my breathing rapid and shallow. I can feel my pulse pounding in my temples. It's a relief to get to my chair, because between the heels and my legs shaking, I'm afraid I'll trip.**

"It's like you're Bella," Gale teases.

"How? What?" Katniss asks, confused.

"Rapid and shallow breathing? Pulse pounding in temples? Randomly clumsy? Tripping? Ridiculously cute?" he says, waving his hands around. Katniss looks at him blankly. "Bella? Twilight? Girl who can make a paper cut sound like her arm is being torn off? That girl?"

"Ohh! You mean DatinAVamp311?" Katniss asks.

"Huh?" Gale says this time.

"She's on AIM, a _lot_. Always talking about her boyfriend, Eddie or something..." Katniss pauses thoughtfully before saying, "Once she got an A- on a test and made it sound like Judgment Day."

Gale furrows his brow. "What are you talking about? That's ridiculous! Bella would never get an A-, she's been taking college lessons, like, before she was even born."

"That's true," Peeta chimes, butting into the conversation.

** Although evening is falling, the City Circle is brighter than a summer's day.**

"What if it were a cloudy summer's day?" Rue asks. "Then that wouldn't be a great comparison, would it?"

"Your mom's a great comparison," Katniss snaps back snidely.

** An elevated seating unit has been set up for prestigious guests, with the stylists commanding the front row. The cameras will turn to them when the crowd is reacting to their handiwork. A large balcony off a building to the right has been reserved for the Gamemakers. Television crews have claimed most of the other balconies. But the City Circle and the avenues that feed into it are completely packed with people. Standing room only. At homes and community halls around the country, every television set is turned on. Every citizen of Panem is tuned in. There will be no blackouts tonight.**

"How do you know that?" Prim asks. "Are you psychic?"

Katniss ignores her.

**Caesar Flickerman, the man who has hosted the interviews for more than forty years, bounces onto the stage.**

"It wasn't so much of a 'bounce' than a 'skip' or a 'stroll with a spring in your step'," Effie tinkles.

"That's not the point..." Haymitch says.

** It's a little scary because his appearance has been virtually unchanged during all that time. Same face under a coating of pure white makeup. Same hairstyle that he dyes a different color for each Hunger Games. Same ceremonial suit, midnight blue dotted with a thousand tiny electric bulbs that twinkle like stars. They do surgery in the Capitol, to make people appear younger and thinner.**

"Preposterous!" Effie shrieks suddenly. Everybody jumps as her shrill voice bounces (skips, strolls with a spring in its step) around the room. "We do no such thing!"

"What such thing?" Katniss shouts back, equally loud, attempting to match her tone to Effie's.

"Surgery! Why, we simply use these little old pills that make you fall asleep! Then, while you're sleeping, you get younger and thinner." Effie gives a wide smile and she gestures to her practically non-existent belly.

Gale thinks for a moment. "Effie, when do you take these pills?"

"When you're on the metal bed of course. It doesn't work if you're not on a metal bed," she says, frankly, as if everyone knew this.

"Who's there with you?" Gale asks.

"Oh, a bunch of pirates! Except they wear white and their eyepatch goes around their mouth and their hats are blue and not very puffy." She smiles once more. "Duh."

Gale does a headdesk. "Those are doctors giving you sedation pills so they can operate on you, Effie," he mumbles, his face on the table.

Effie frowns. "Of course not, operations means using knives, and those little pointy things in there aren't—Ohh..."

** In District 12, looking old is something of an achievement since so many people die early. You see an elderly person you want to congratulate them on their longevity, ask the secret of survival.**

"In the Capitol, if you see someone old, you duck and cover so you don't catch the plague," Effie says.

"What plague?" Prim asks, interested.

"The Old-Person Plague," Snow answers. He and Effie high-five. "The only way to stay immune is to high-five someone right away."

** A plump person is envied because they aren't scraping by like the majority of us.**

"If someone were 'plump' in the Capitol, the security guards would tackle them and put them in solitary confinement to quarantine them," Effie says. Her eyes tear up and she rips out a handkerchief. While dabbing dramatically, she says, "It happened to my mother. She missed a pill."

"What about your dad?" Gale asks.

"He filed a divorce file right after," Effie says, coldly. "And I don't blame him. How irresponsible! Missing a pill!" She scoffs.

** But here it is different. Wrinkles aren't desirable. A round belly isn't a sign of success.**

Effie purses her lips together. "Wrinkles are popular," she says, "just not on your skin."

"Where are they popular, then?" Katniss asks, skeptically.

"On your socks." And that was the end of the conversation.

**This year, Caesar's hair is powder blue and his eyelids and lips are coated in the same hue. He looks freakish but less frightening than he did last year when his color was crimson and he seemed to be bleeding.**

"What's wrong with a bleeding person?" Effie asks.

"Well, for starters, the man looked like he was leaking blood out of his skin**—**" Gale starts.

Katniss interrupts, "That's usually what bleeding means, Gale."

He continues without missing a beat. "**—**and he also looked like his red body fluid of which brings oxygen everywhere was pouring out of his flesh**—**"

"Once again, that's what bleeding means, Gale," Katniss says.

He ignores her. "**—**and it also looked like his body was excreting sanguine heavy-viscosity liquid."

Effie looks at Gale and says, "What's wrong with a bleeding person?"

** Caesar tells a few jokes to warm up the audience but then gets down to business.**

**The girl tribute from District 1, looking provocative in a see-through gold gown, steps up the center of the stage to join Caesar for her interview. You can tell her mentor didn't have any trouble coming up with an angle for her. With that flowing blonde hair, emerald green eyes, her body tall and lush . . . she's sexy all the way.**

"No, obviously she's going for the ugly one," Haymitch says wryly.

**Each interview only lasts three minutes. Then a buzzer goes off and the next tribute is up. I'll say this for Caesar, he really does his best to make the tributes shine. He's friendly, tries to set the nervous ones at ease, laughs at lame jokes, and can turn a weak response into a memorable one by the way he reacts.**

**I sit like a lady, the way Effie showed me,**

Effie smiles broadly as she recollects this memory.

** as the districts slip by. 2, 3, 4. Everyone seems to be playing up some angle. The monstrous boy from District 2 is a ruthless killing machine.**

"Except it wasn't even an angle," Peeta says. "Cato really was a ruthless killing machine."

Katniss shudders at the thought of colossal tribute.

** The fox-faced girl from District 5 sly and elusive.**

"Once again, not an angle," Peeta says.

** I spotted Cinna as soon as he took his place, but even his presence cannot relax me. 8, 9, 10. The crippled boy from 10 is very quiet. My palms are sweating like crazy, but the jeweled dress isn't absorbent and they skid right of if I try to dry them. 11.**

**Rue, who is dressed in a gossamer gown complete with wings, flutters her way to Caesar. A hush falls over the crowd at the sight of this magical wisp of a tribute. Caesar's very sweet with her, complimenting her seven in training, an excellent score for one so small.**

"How stereotypical," Rue pouts. "You know, if I were on stilts, I'd be pretty tall."

"Anyone on stilts seems tall," Haymitch says.

** When he asks her what her greatest strength in the arena will be, she doesn't hesitate. "I'm very hard to catch," she says in a tremulous voice. "And if they can't catch me, they can't kill me. So don't count me out."**

"Which is funny because Marvel caught you and killed you," Gale jokes.

Katniss and Rue's eyes narrow to slits and a deep guttural noise rolls out from their throat.

"S**—**sorry," he mumbles.

**"I wouldn't in a million years," says Caesar encouragingly.**

"Which is probably how old he is," Rue says, laughing to herself.

**The boy tribute from District 11, Thresh, has the same dark skin as Rue, but the resemblance stops there. He's one of the giants, probably six and a half feet tall and built like an ox,**

"Thresh is just misunderstood," Rue defends her District partner fiercely. "He's actually very sweet."

Gale snorts. "When you're built like a male cow and you look like you can snap a log in half with your bare hands, most people don't consider you sweet."

** but I noticed he rejected the invitations from the Career Tributes to join their crowd. Instead he's been very solitary, speaking to no one, showing little interest in training. Even so, he scored a ten and it's not hard to imagine he impressed the Gamemakers. He ignores Caesar's attempts at banter and answers with a yes or no or just remains silent.**

"Thresh is just a big sweetheart," Rue gushes once more. "He tries to act all tough but he actually is just a softie. He loves kitties."

**If only I was his size, I could get away with sullen and hostile and it would be just fine! I bet half the sponsors are at least considering him. If I had any money, I'd bet on him myself.**

**And then they're calling Katniss Everdeen, and I feel myself, as if in a dream, standing and making my way center stage. I shake Caesar's outstretched hand, and he has the good grace not to immediately wipe his off on his suit.**

"What? The glitter?" Peeta asks.

Haymitch whacks him in the head. "No," he says sarcastically, "cooties."

**"So, Katniss, the Capitol must be quite a change from District Twelve. What's impressed you most since you arrived here?" asks Caesar.**

**What? What did he say?**

"He said what impressed you most since you arrived there," Prim says helpfully.

"She's aware," Rue says.

** It's as if the words make no sense.**

**My mouth has gone as dry as sawdust. I desperately find Cinna in the crowd and lock eyes with him.**

"So intense," Peeta says.

"But you need to go deeper!" Gale exclaims.

"Inception," they whisper at the same time.

** I imagine the words coming from his lips. "What's impressed you most since you arrived here?" I rack my brain for something that made me happy here. Be honest, I think. Be honest.**

"Oh, no..." Snow moans. "You? Honesty? That's like letting a wolf loose in a sheep pen."

**"The lamb stew," I get out.**

"What'd I tell you?" Snow chuckles. "Lamb stew."

**Caesar laughs, and vaguely I realize some of the audience has joined in.**

**"The one with the dried plums?" asks Caesar. I nod.**

"You're so descriptive," Haymitch says dryly. "Nodding your head like that."

** "Oh, I eat it by the bucketful." He turns sideways to the audience in horror, hand on his stomach. "It doesn't show, does it?" They shout reassurances to him and applaud.**

"It _can't_ show," Effie says, acrimoniously. "I have the same pill-maker as him—"

"I thought we made it clear already, Effie," Katniss says. "You take pills to go to sleep and while you're sleeping, surgeons come and cut you up."

Effie opens her mouth, closes it again, and then opens it once more. "Well, then we have the same _suuurrgeons,_" she emphasizes the word _surgeon_, "and if it doesn't work for him, that means that it doesn't work for me. And I can't have a pirate that doesn't work for me!"

** This is what I mean about Caesar. He tries to help you out.**

**"Now, Katniss," he says confidentially, "When you came out in the opening ceremonies, my heart actually stopped. What did you think of that costume?"**

**Cinna raises one eyebrow at me. Be honest.**

"Like giving her a matchstick and a gallon of gasoline," mutters snow.

** "You mean after I got over my fear of being burned alive?" I ask.**

"What'd I tell you?" Snow laughs, slapping his knee.

**Big laugh. A real one from the audience.**

"More fragments..." Gale says

**"Yes. Start then," says Caesar.**

**Cinna, my friend, I should tell him anyway.**

"This sentence doesn't even make any sense!" Gale cries out. "What do you mean 'Cinna, my friend, I should tell him anyway'?"

"I mean," Katniss explains, "I should tell Cinna, my friend, anyway."

"Couldn't you have just said that in the first place?" Gale huffs.

** "I thought Cinna was brilliant and it was the most gorgeous costume I'd ever seen and I couldn't believe I was wearing it. I can't believe I'm wearing this, either." I lift up my skirt to spread it out. "I mean, look at it!"**

"You can be a pretty good gusher when you want to, you know," Peeta remarks. "Just...you never do."

**As the audience oohs and ahs, I see Cinna make the tiniest circular motion with his finger. But I know what he's saying. Twirl for me.**

**I spin in a circle once and the reaction is immediate.**

**"Oh, do that again!" says Caesar, and so I lift up my arms and spin around and around letting the skirt fly out, letting the dress engulf me in flames. The audience breaks into cheers. When I stop, I clutch Caesar's arm.**

**"Don't stop!" he says.**

**"I have to, I'm dizzy!" I'm also giggling, which I think I've done maybe never in my lifetime. But the nerves and the spinning have gotten to me.**

"That's right!" Gale exclaims. "Spinning is literally scrambling your brain. The inner ear, which processes a complex series of stimuli in order to maintain balance, gets overloaded and the body simply collapses in confusion. It's like kicking a phonograph. What happens after you do it? The needle skips."

Rue jumps in, "We have a Spinning Cult in District 11. They call themselves the Adipiscing Vitae, Spin of Life. They consider spinning around in a circle as a way to reach a heightened sensory and emotional state. On the other hand, it could be that most of them are children and children do stupid things for no reason."

**Caesar wraps a protective arm around me. "Don't worry, I've got you. Can't have you following in your mentor's footsteps."**

**Everyone's hooting as the cameras find Haymitch, who is by now famous for his head dive at the reaping, and he waves them away good-naturedly and points back to me.**

"I'm terribly good-natured when I want to," he admits, humbly. Everyone snorts in disbelief.

**"It's all right," Caesar reassures the crowd. "She's safe with me. So, how about that training score. E-le-ven. Give us a hint what happened in there."**

**I glance at the Gamemakers on the balcony and bite my lip. "Um . . . all I can say, is I think it was a first."**

**The cameras are right on the Gamemakers, who are chuckling and nodding.**

**"You're killing us," says Caesar as if in actual pain. "Details. Details."**

**I address the balcony. "I'm not supposed to talk about it, right?"**

**The Gamemaker who fell in the punch bowl shouts out, "She's not!"**

**"Thank you," I say. "Sorry. My lips are sealed."**

**"Let's go back then, to the moment they called your sister's name at the reaping," says Caesar. His mood is quieter now. "And you volunteered. Can you tell us about her?"**

**No. No, not all of you. But maybe Cinna. I don't think I'm imagining the sadness on his face.**

"I don't believe you were," Gale says. "He honestly cares for you."

** "Her name's Prim. She's just twelve. And I love her more than anything."**

**You could hear a pin drop in the City Circle now.**

**"What did she say to you? After the reaping?" Caesar asks.**

**Be honest. Be honest. I swallow hard. "She asked me to try really hard to win." The audience is frozen, hanging on my every word.**

**"And what did you say?" prompts Caesar gently.**

**But instead of warmth, I feel an icy rigidity take over my body. My muscles tense as they do before a kill. When I speak, my voice seems to have dropped an octave. "I swore I would."**

**"I bet you did," says Caesar, giving me a squeeze. The buzzer goes off. "Sorry we're out of time. Best of luck, Katniss Everdeen, tribute from District Twelve."**

**The applause continues long after I'm seated. I look to Cinna for reassurance. He gives me a subtle thumbs-up.**

**I'm still in a daze for the first part of Peeta's interview.**

Peeta wilts in the couch.

** He has the audience from the get-go, though; I can hear them laughing, shouting out. He plays up the baker's son thing, comparing the tributes to the breads from their districts.**

"Cato is like hardtack," Peeta says. "He's tough, cheap, unperishable, and you'd want him for long distance traveling." He stops but Katniss motions for him to continue. "I don't remember some of it but Foxface was like garlic bread, a slick greasy kid. District 4 Tributes are like Taiyaki. Thresh is like white bread, simple, out there, and hard to beat."

"What about me?" Rue peeps.

"Eh," Peeta grunts.

** Then has a funny anecdote about the perils of the Capitol showers. "Tell me, do I still smell like roses?" he asks Caesar, and then there's a whole run where they take turns sniffing each other that brings down the house.**

"I admit, the showers are rather obnoxious. I mean, could you find a more generic scent?" Peeta laughs.

** I'm coming back into focus when Caesar asks him if he has a girlfriend back home.**

**Peeta hesitates, then gives an unconvincing shake of his head.**

**"Handsome lad like you. There must be some special girl. Come on, what's her name?" says Caesar.**

**Peeta sighs. "Well, there is this one girl. I've had a crush on her ever since I can remember. But I'm pretty sure she didn't know I was alive until the reaping."**

**Sounds of sympathy from the crowd. Unrequited love they can relate to.**

**"She have another fellow?" asks Caesar.**

**"I don't know, but a lot of boys like her," says Peeta.**

**"So, here's what you do. You win, you go home. She can't turn you down then, eh?" says Caesar encouragingly.**

**"I don't think it's going to work out. Winning . . . won't help in my case," says Peeta.**

**"Why ever not?" says Caesar, mystified.**

**Peeta blushes beet red and stammers out. "Because . . . because . . . she came here with me."**

"...And that's the end of the chapter," Katniss says, closing the gigantic book, scattering dust everywhere. She looks at Peeta. "That was really sweet of you, you know."

"I know," Peeta says arrogantly.

"That just ruined it," Gale says.

"Okay, I guess that's it. We should wait for Rhea's instructions, right?" Rue asks, looking at her wrist, as if there were a watch there.

Snow salutes to everyone and stands up. "Well then, Princess Meriel and I should get going." He touches Johanna faintly and she rises immediately.

"Good day, my good men and women," she dictates. Snow floods the room with an overbearing citrus scent and disappears with her at his side.

"...I wonder when we're getting out," Prim murmurs.

There is silence in the room. Most of the crew have forgotten that they had a life. That they needed to get out.

"We'll just keep reading, goose," Katniss coos. "There's not much others that we _can_ do."

* * *

**Whooo. That took a lot of time. Thanks for everyone who's still staying with me! I'm rewriting the first few chapters, so stay tuned. Review!**


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